Safety-net hospital funding hinges on widely varying definitions: 7 things to know

Funding for safety-net hospitals relies on definitions that vary significantly, leading to big differences in which facilities qualify for support and how resources are distributed, according to a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. Seven things to know:

1. Definitions vary widely. Researchers applied nine definitions of safety-net hospitals to data from more than 4,500 acute care hospitals. Depending on the definition used, anywhere from 992 to more than 1,300 hospitals qualified, capturing as few as 2% or as many as 69% of rural hospitals. 2. Some definitions overlap heavily. Many definitions identified the same hospitals, creating redundancies and inefficiencies. This overlap suggests policymakers could streamline data collect