Title
Freestanding Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Performance Following the 60 Percent Rule: A Matter of Fit
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2013
Abstract
The 60 percent rule has served as a controversial policy change within the postacute care sector since its revision in 2004, requiring inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) to admit no less than 60% of patients according to 1 of 13 specific conditions or else risk the loss of IRF designation according to Medicare’s prospective payment system. Using a contingency theory framework, this study proposes that the 60 percent rule introduced considerable uncertainty into freestanding IRFs’ operational environment, and as a result, IRFs’ operational performance varied according to their “fit” between certain structural characteristics and the pervasive environmental uncertainty. The results suggest that operational performance, as measured by facility Malmquist Index scores, decreased on average for freestanding IRFs following the 60 percent rule’s enforcement in 2005. In contrast, organizations possessing structural characteristics that better “fit” the heightened environmental uncertainty exhibited improved performance on average during the study’s 6-year time period.
Identifier
10.1177/1077558712453206
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Repository Citation
Shay, P.D., & Ozcan, Y.A. (2013). Freestanding inpatient rehabilitation facility performance following the 60 percent rule: A matter of fit. Medical Care Research and Review, 70(1), 46-67. doi: 10.1177/1077558712453206
Publication Information
Medical Care Research and Review