TABLE 1—

Results for the 3 Time Periods

	Baseline Period April 1, 1996–July 18, 1996		Immediate Postlegislative Period July 19, 1996–October 17, 1997		Late Postlegislative Period October 18, 1997–December 31, 1998
	Medicaid	Commercial Insurance	Medicaid	Commercial Insurance	Medicaid	Commercial Insurance
n	409	2528	1860	11 562	2023	11 653
Short stay, %	87.0	84.1	71.3	57.0	58.8	40.7
Relative risk (Medicaid/commercial)	1.03		1.06 (beginning)		1.44
			1.67 (end)
Odds ratio (Medicaid/commercial)	1.27		1.34 (beginning)		2.07
			2.65 (end)
95% confidence limits	0.93, 1.72		1.05, 1.72 (beginning)		1.89, 2.28
			2.16, 3.24 (end)
Change in the odds of a short stay during the period, % per month	+12.9	−1.0	−7.6	−11.7	+1.2	−0.8
95% confidence limits	−17.6, 50.9	−10.6, 9.6	−9.9, –5.3	−12.5, –10.9	−0.9, 3.4	−1.6, 0.1

Note. Commercial insurance included BlueCross BlueShield, commercial health maintenance organization nonsenior plans, and all other commercial insurance plans. Medicaid coverage included fee-for-service and health maintenance organization plans. April 1, 1996–July 18, 1996 = the baseline period immediately before the law was signed by the governor; July 19, 1996–October 17, 1997 = the immediate postlegislative period between the signing of the law and 1 year after the law went into effect; October 18, 1997–December 31, 1998 = the late postlegislative period.