Statistic: To compare hospital charges for certain physicians and insurance carriers

I . Executive summary

This study tested , at 0 .05 level of significance , differences of average hospital charges by type of insurance and by physician . A regression analysis was performed on the hospital charges using number of days of hospitalization , physician , and type of insurance as predictor variables . This study used a random sample of 289 patients from a population of patients with chronic illnesses hospitalized in 2009 for 1-4 days at a large hospital . Results of the study confirmed that (a Average hospitalization charges for patients with managed care insurance and

commercial insurance do not differ significantly (b ) The highest average charging physician significantly differed with two lowest average charging physicians and (c ) Hospital charges can be explained by a linear regression function with number of days of hospitalization as predictor

II . Introduction

U .S . health care costs have been increasing , from 253 billion in 1980 714 billion in 1990 to 2 .3 trillion in 2008 . Thirty-one percent and 21 percent of this 2 .3 trillion 2008 health care cost was contributed by hospital care and physician /clinical services . Per capita 2008 U .S . health spending , among the highest in industrialized countries , was valued at 7681 accounting for 16 .2 of the country 's Gross Domestic Product . The steep increase in health care costs together with the economic slump puts pressure on the health care industry as well as on the average American . In fact , there is increasing strains on the systems that finance health care Employer-sponsored family premiums health...