Healthcare Case Mix Crisis

To help you to better understand why case mix is important to managed care and reimbursement methods; here are some fictional heart attack mortality rates for three different hospitals. Consider the national average for heart attack death rates to be 16%.

Hospital Mortality Rate National Mortality Rate
Hospital A 16.1% 16%
Hospital B 18.6%
Hospital C 15.7%

Part I

Write a 3-4 page report in which you answer the following questions:

  1. Explain case mix and why it is important in evaluating different health care providers.
  2. Refer to the table of heart attack mortality rates for Hospitals A, B, and C. From your reading this week, what variables might be impacting the rates in the table? Please explain and discuss the use of data analysis for evaluating this kind of information.