Objective To investigate the rural residents’ payment will for disease control and its influencing factors, so as to provide evidence for the government to make policy of combing disease control and New Rural Co-operative Medical system (NRCMS). Methods The self-designed questionnaire was adopted to investigate 1 117 rural residents from 156 villages, 44 towns, 19 counties (cities, districts) in Henan province. The frequency analysis and the multiple logistic regression analysis were conducted by using SPSS 11.5 software. Results On the basis of NRCMS payment, 68.3% of the rural residents were willing to pay extra for disease control, 62.3% of whom were willing to pay RMB 1.00 or more, and the average willing payment were RMB 3.01±7.66. The multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the people willing to pay extra were as follows: self-employed, graduates from a secondary technical school, dink family, and the respondents who believed NRCMS had relieved their medical financial burden. Conclusion In practicing the rural public health policy of combining disease control and NRCMS, it is suggested to ask rural residents to pay a little extra money on the basis of current NRCMS payment. The foundation of bringing this policy into force is to keep practicing NRCMS well so as to relieve more financial burdens for rural residents. During the implementation, low income families should be taken into consideration according to their occupation, educational level and family structure.
ObjectiveAs few studies have evaluated the policy effects of the Chinese simplified DRGs-PPS systematically, this research aims to assess its policy effects and to provide insight for other developing regions that are undergoing the same reform. MethodsThe history and major problems of the Chinese DRGs-PPS were analyzed qualitatively. Moreover, the efficiency (average hospitalization cost; length of stay, LOS) and equity of the simplified DRGs-PPS were examined at both macro and micro levels. ResultsAs of today, only 20 of the 32 provinces in mainland China had implemented the simplified DRGs. There were also huge differences in terms of the number and categories of diseases among the various provinces involved. Literature review showed that " lack of rationale in setting payment standards" , "limited diseases are included into the DRGs categories" and "lack of regulation to avoid ethical risks of health service providers" were the frequently cited problems. On the macro level, the national average medical cost had increased while the average LOS had been relatively stable from the year 2004 onwards, and simplified DRGs had been implemented widely since 2004 while discrepancies existed in various provinces. On the micro level, among the studies that focused on assessing hospitals with statistical test, 78% (11/14) of these studies revealed that hospitalization cost could be reduced and 60% (6/10) of them indicated that LOS could be reduced. ConclusionBy comparing the policy effects at both macro and micro levels, we conclude that the simplified DRGs are useful in controlling hospitalization cost but they fail to reduce LOS. Also much more still needs to be done in China to facilitate the transition from simplified DRGs to genuine DRGs.
Objective To evaluate the implementation effects and problems about quota payment of specific diseases for hyperplasia prostate and ureteral calculi in Chengdu. Methods Payments, man-time of operation, and the lengths of hospitalization of hyperplasia prostate and ureteral calculi as quota payment of specific diseases in Chengdu from 2013 to 2015 were analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 software. Results Based on the standards of medical expense limitation in Chengdu unchanged, tertiary and secondary hospitals remained surplus with quota standards of single diseases unchanged. The average lengths of hospitalization of hyperplasia prostate and ureteral calculi in tertiary and secondary hospitals were significantly decreased (P<0.05). Conclusion The application of quota payment policy for single disease in Chengdu city of Sichuan province has been proved to work on controlling the medical expense of treating hyperplasia prostate and ureteral calculi. Our results indicate the continuous implementation of quota payment policy. However, the exploration of proper payment standardization, enhance of hospital supervision and establishment of efficient system are still needed to define.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy of pay-for-performance (P4P) for primary care physicians (PCPs). MethodsThe Cochrane Library, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, EMbase, Web of Science, PubMed, Dissertations and Theses Database, EconLit, CNKI, WanFang Data, IDEAS, and POPLINE were searched to collect studies on the efficacy of P4P for PCPs from inception to May 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Statistical analysis was then performed by using RevMan 5.4 software. ResultsA total of 10 studies were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that P4P incentives possibly improved child immunization status (RR=1.27, 95%CI 1.19 to 1.36, P<0.001), slightly improved primary care physicians’ prescribing of guideline-recommended antihypertensive medicines compared with existing payment method (RR=1.07, 95%CI 1.02 to 1.12, P=0.006), and improved a mixed outcome measure of service provision and patient health outcomes (RR=1.13, 95%CI 1.04 to 1.23, P=0.004). ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that P4P possibly increases the quantity of health service provision and improve quality of service provision for targeted populations. The effects of P4P on health outcomes is uncertain. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high-quality studies are required to verify the above conclusions.
Judging from the latest policies related to the medical insurance payment reform of the state and Sichuan province, the reform of medical insurance diagnosis-related group (DRG)/diagnosis-intervention packet (DIP) payment methods is imperative. The impact of DRG/DIP payment method reform on public hospitals is mainly analyzed from the aspects of hospital cost accounting and control, quality of filling in the first page of medical cases, coding accuracy, standard of medical practice, development of diagnosis and treatment technology innovation business, multi-departmental linkage mechanism, competition between hospitals, performance appraisal mechanism, and negotiation and communication mechanism. We should put forward hospital improvement strategies from the top-level design of the whole hospital and from the aspects of improving the quality of the first page of the cases and the quality of the coding, strengthening the cost accounting and control of the disease, carrying out in-hospital and out-of-hospital training, establishing a liaison model, finding gaps with benchmark hospitals, enhancing the core competitiveness of innovative technologies, and improving internal performance appraisal, etc., to promote the high-quality development of hospitals.
ObjectiveIn light of the comprehensively implemented reform of medical insurance payments, this study analyzed the impact of the payment intervention and COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalization expenses for identical diseases between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine hospitals, to provide evidence to promote high-quality coordinated development of hospitals and insurance while reducing patient load. MethodsFrom January 2014 to December 2020, we gathered data including 9 900 individual medical records of woman-related malignant tumors (WMT) from all 23 public hospitals in a district of Shanghai. We developed an interrupted time-series analysis model based on the above two interventions, to compare the inpatient average per-time expenses between different hospitals and different groups. ResultsThe average per-time expenses of WMT in Western hospitals changed from rising to declining after the policy intervention, and increased again during the pandemic. In TCM hospitals, the expenses continued to increase and fluctuated after the pandemic. ConclusionThe policy intervention has achieved a good effect on controlling the cost of Western hospitals, rather than the significant increase in TCM hospitals. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on hospitalization expenses. It’s urgent to develop a payment model that fits the development and characteristics of TCM, to control the unreasonable growth of expenses. Moreover, the financial compensation methods and supervision mechanism of public hospitals should be improved to effectively resist the threat of public health emergencies for the development of hospitals and the legitimate rights of patients.
ObjectiveTo preliminary investigate the impact of the diagnosis-related groups (DRG) payment method reform on the diagnosis and treatment of inpatient medical insurance patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD), and to propose potential improvement strategies. MethodsA single-center, retrospective study. From October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2022, 44 hospitalized medical insurance patients with acute-phase NMOSD diagnosed and treated at the First Affiliated Hospital of Northwest University (Xi'an First Hospital) were included in the study. Among them, there were 11 males and 33 females, with an average age of (40.8±20.2) years. According to the implementation time of DRG payment, patients were divided into two groups: group A, which consists of cases one year before the implementation of DRG payment from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021, and group B, which consists of cases one year after the implementation of DRG payment from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022, with 20 and 24 cases, respectively. Detailed information such as hospitalization duration, treatment methods, and hospitalization costs of the two groups of patients was collected. Comparative analysis was conducted on hospitalization costs and treatment methods between the two groups. For intergroup comparison, t-test was used for normally distributed data, and Mann-Whitney U test was used for skewed distributed data. ResultsAmong the 44 patients, 5 cases (5/24, 20.8%) received plasma exchange (PE) treatment, all of whom were in group B. The numbers of patients who received and did not receive intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment were 9 and 11 in group A, respectively, and 7 and 12 in group B (except for 5 cases who received PE treatment), respectively. Compared with group A, there was no significant decrease in hospitalization duration (t=0.004) and total hospitalization costs (Z=0.036), as well as costs for western medicine (Z=0.036), examinations (Z=0.011), laboratory tests (Z=0.040), treatments (Z=0.017), and nursing (Z=3.131) in group B, and the differences were not statistically significant (P＞0.05). For patients receiving PE treatment, except for the cost of western medicine (Z=0.062, P=0.804), the other costs (Z=8.288, 5.013, 11.400, 10.925, 9.126) were significantly higher than those of patients not receiving PE treatment, and the hospitalization duration (t=20.474) was significantly prolonged, with statistically significant differences (P＜0.05). The total hospitalization costs of patients receiving IVIG treatment were significantly higher than those not receiving IVIG treatment in both group A and group B, with statistically significant differences (Z=7.690, 10.314; P＜0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the comparison of total hospitalization costs between patients receiving IVIG treatment in group A and group B (Z=0.137, P＞0.05). ConclusionsThere is no significant decrease in various hospitalization costs of NMOSD medical insurance patients in Xi'an after the implementation of DRG payment, especially for patients receiving PE treatment. It is suggested to optimize the rate stratification of NMOSD patients when implementing DRG payment methods.