Abstract
Hospitals operate within a regulatory construct that influences their daily operation, reporting, and reimbursement. Regulations, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) make changes to operating and reporting requirements for hospitals servicing the Medicare population that represents one-third of U.S. hospitals’ payer mix. Prior research has evaluated the influence of regulatory change on hospital financial performance, but not on reporting accuracy. The aim of this research is to address this gap and test the relationship between regulatory change and reporting accuracy utilizing a sample of more than 23,000 Medicare cost reports spanning 2007-2014. The results indicate that reporting accuracy is influenced by regulatory changes occurring in the ACA. In addition, this study confirms prior research findings on the influence of reporting accuracy relative to hospital financial performance using a new and comprehensive sample of hospitals from across the United States.