Relationship between patient source of payment and the intensity of hospital services.

for hospitals are changing, increasing concern among citizens, researchers, and policy makers that gains toward achieving equality in medical care are being reversed. The new changes emphasize cost containment, a necessary goal, but one that may be difficult for hospitals to achieve without serious impact on clinical services, partly because of differences in the ability of patients to pay for their care. Before policy makers can project the impact of new efforts at cost containment, it is important to determine whether and to what extent clinical services in hospitals already depend upon the type of insurance the patient has.