Cost-shifting is an economic situation where one individual, group, or government underpays for a service, resulting in another individual, group, or government overpaying for a service.
It can occur when one group pays a smaller share of costs than before, resulting in another group paying a larger share of costs than before.
Some commentators on health policy in the United States believe the former currently happens in Medicare and Medicaid as they underpay for services resulting in private insurers overpaying.
Although the term cost shift is used in the field of healthcare these days and there are many studies about it, other fields have more or less used it.
For example, its origins go back to the environmental economy where cost-shifting referred to the practice where corporations pass the harmful consequences and negative externalities of economic production to third parties and communities whether those that are part of the production circuit or are in some way beneficiaries or those that are outside this circle, K.W.
Kapp, is one who coined the concept.
This concept is also used in the American legal system, especially since the cost of electronic discovery has increased dramatically due to a large amount of raw information and the urgent need to extract relevant data, its processing, and analysis.
In the past, each of the plaintiffs and defendants had to bear the cost, but later many of those who prepared the summons demanded the transfer of the cost because they thought they would have to pay for something they did not do.
In this regard, some courts have agreed to shift part of the costs to the complainant.
