Saturday, March 29, 2008

After Midnight: A Regression Discontinuity Design in Length of Postpartum Hospital Stays

Douglas Almond, Joseph J. Doyle, Jr.

NBER Working Paper No. 13877
Issued in March 2008

---- Abridged Abstract -----

"A newborn delivered at 12:05 a.m. will have an extra night of reimbursable care compared to an infant born minutes earlier... Furthermore, a law change in 1997 entitled newborns to a minimum of 2 days in care... The results suggest that for uncomplicated births, longer hospitals stays incur substantial costs without apparent health benefits".

No comments: