Effects of the Austrian performance-oriented inpatient reimbursement system on treatment patterns: illustrated on cases with knee-joint problems

This paper analyzes changes in the treatment patterns of inpatients due to the effects of the new Austrian performance-oriented inpatient payment system (LKF-system) introduced in 1997. The primary variables of interest are the inpatients’ length of stay (LOS) and the associated reimbursement points (LKF-points). We applied regression models to investigate treatment patterns of inpatients with knee-joint problems in Austria between 2002 and 2006. For both non-surgical and surgical groups, the number of cases increased. We revealed the Federal State-specific reimbursement features together with Federal State-specific Big Ticket technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the age of the inpatients as the main influencing factors on average LOS and average LKF-points. The average LOS decreased for surgical groups and also resulted in a decline in the average LKF-points from 2002 to 2006, while for the non-surgical group both average LOS and average LKF-points slightly decreased from 2003 to 2006.