基本医疗保险拒付制度有效性分析

建立医疗保险拒付制度有效性的分析框架,并以北京市拒付实施为例进行实证分析,未发现拒付制度与住院费用增长存在统计学相关性,基于结论做出有关分析与建议。     

Supplementary insurance as a switching cost for basic health insurance: Empirical results from the Netherlands

Nearly everyone with a supplementary insurance (SI) in the Netherlands takes out the voluntary SI and the mandatory basic insurance (BI) from the same health insurer. Previous studies show that many high-risks perceive SI as a switching cost for BI. Because consumers’ current insurer provides them with a guaranteed renewability, SI is a switching cost if insurers apply selective underwriting to new applicants. Several changes in the Dutch health insurance market increased insurers’ incentives to counteract adverse selection for SI. Tools to do so are not only selective underwriting, but also risk rating and product differentiation. If all insurers use the latter tools without selective underwriting, SI is not a switching cost for BI. We investigated to what extent insurers used these tools in the periods 2006–2009 and 2014–2015. Only a few insurers applied selective underwriting: in 2015, 86% of insurers used open enrolment for all their SI products, and the other 14% did use open enrolment for their most common SI products. As measured by our indicators, the proportion of insurers applying risk rating or product differentiation did not increase in the periods considered. Due to the fear of reputation loss insurers may have used ‘less visible’ tools to counteract adverse selection that are indirect forms of risk rating and product differentiation and do not result in switching costs. So, although many high-risks perceive SI as a switching cost, most insurers apply open enrolment for SI. By providing information to high-risks about their switching opportunities, the government could increase consumer choice and thereby insurers’ incentives to invest in high-quality care for high-risks.     

县域医保支付与医疗服务结构适配关系与机理——基于云县典型案例的分析

医保与医疗系统协同被视为促进卫生服务体系优化的关键手段,现有研究往往忽视了两个子系统之间的协同。本研究以云县医共体为研究范本,以适配理论为依据,构建医保支付与医疗服务的跨系统适配分析框架,纵向梳理系统适配路径,揭示适配机理。研究发现,两个子系统间主要有三种适配模式,呈现向下一阶段演进的特征;跨系统适配是一个多因素调节的互动过程,子系统适配地位具有非对等性,呈现“服务优先变革—保障适应调整—服务结构转变—医保引导行为”的全景。本研究对于中国特色医保支付方式适配改革具有一定参考价值,有利于形成中国式现代化县域卫生治理的有益经验,推进新时代县域卫生服务高质量发展。     

Towards population-based payment models in a multiple-payer system: the case of the Netherlands

The Dutch private multi-payer system is characterised by a catalogue that is dominated by fee-for-service based payments. Up to now, alternative payment models have not taken flight. Recent small-scale experiments show substantial potential benefits of population-based payment models. Drawing on international literature and two expert focus groups, we analyse how population-based payments may be taken up more fiercely in a system run on the principles of managed competition.The decentralised nature of the Dutch system naturally aligns with a bottom-up implementation approach. Payers and providers can initiate population-based payment systems to fit local needs, but should determine clear preconditions that focus on quality of care. Quality indicators tied to financial incentives, such as shared savings, might minimise risks of undertreatment. Deliberative processes between payer and providers may determine adequate indicators. Upfront investments are needed to facilitate necessary data infrastructure. Furthermore, alternative payment systems might be encouraged through nationally set default options towards integrated payment systems, potentially reducing administrative burdens. Strong leadership, trust, and mutual understanding are paramount to overcome silos to integrate services across providers. Policymakers in other multi-payer managed competition systems may benefit from these insights.     

医保支付方式改革实践与启示——基于卫十一项目探索

医保支付方式改革是我国医疗卫生体制改革的重要内容。本文基于世行贷款/英国赠款中国农村卫生发展项目(卫十一项目)2009—2014年在8个省40个项目县所开展的医保支付方式改革相关研究与探索实践,通过回顾医保支付方式政策演变、系统总结项目地区所经历的"单一支付方式改革—混合支付方式改革—支付制度综合改革"过程,分析了支付方式改革的优劣势和作用。在此基础上,提出了我国深化医保支付方式综合协同发展的改革原则和可行的政策路径。     

成都市重特大疾病医疗保障水平研究——基于肺和支气管恶性肿瘤患者医疗费用保障水平及评价分析

目的 在我国多层次医疗保障体系不断发展完善的背景下,文章以成都市为例,对重特大疾病保障水平进行测度与评价。方法 利用成都市医保结算数据,对基本医保、补充医保对肺和支气管恶性肿瘤患者的经济补偿效果进行研究,以“实际补偿比”作为保障水平的度量指标,引用“底线补偿比”和“患者自付比例”对保障水平予以评价。结果 2013—2020年住院患者实际补偿比在57%～86%之间,2014—2020年门特患者实际补偿比在75%～97%之间,且住院实际补偿比超过了20%阈值下的底线补偿比,门特实际补偿比超过了5%阈值下的底线补偿比。从患者自付比例来看,除了三级医院住院患者,其他情形下均达到了我国2030年个人自付占比为25%的目标。结论 成都市对重特大疾病患者已实现相对较高的保障水平,这得益于成都市医保敢开先河,不断构建完善的多层次医疗保障体系。     

Absence of appropriate hospitalization cost control for patients with medical insurance: a comparative analysis study

Objective: Expose the weak loops in the Chinese medical insurance coverage and uncover hospitals' role of over‐pricing hospitalized insured patients compared with those non‐insured. Methods: A multi‐linear regression method was used to analyze hospitalization expense for insured and uninsured patients with uncomplicated acute appendicitis, cholecystitis, benign uterine tumors, and normal delivery. Results: Hospitalization cost is higher among insured than uninsured patients due to longer hospitalization lengths of stay, type of disease (highest among cholecystitis patients), type of gender – females, old‐aged people, and type of marital status – singles, as well as drugs expenses, surgical expenses, and other medical acts. Conclusion: Require a better government's supervision system over medical insurance expenses such as reforming methods of payments, building up new cost compensation mechanism, and unifying and stabilizing prices for each category of medicines. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychometric properties of the spinal cord injury-quality of life (SCI-QOL) Resilience item bank in a sample with spinal cord injury and chronic pain

Quality of Life Research - To describe the psychometric properties (e.g., data distribution characteristics, convergent/discriminant validity, internal consistency reliability, and test...     

上海市城镇职工基本医疗保险支付方式改革的历程及启示

目的：全面分析上海城镇职工医保支付方式改革的历程,剖析改革诱因、暴露的问题和取得的成效,为其它地区开展相关改革提供经验借鉴。方法：收集相关文件和职工医保运行的有关数据,通过描述性统计方法进行分析,并访谈了解有关专家对上海市城镇职工医保改革的观点。结果：上海市医保支付方式改革遵循从总额控制、总额预算管理到总额预付制改革的主线,辅之以精神病医院的按床日付费、部分病种的单病种支付等精细化管理手段,改革强调多种支付方式复合使用,注重把握先易后难、逐步推进的改革步调,基本实现了筹资与支付、费用与质量的平衡。     

The effect of social health insurance on prenatal care: the case of Ghana

Many developing countries have introduced social health insurance programs to help address two of the United Nations’ millennium development goals—reducing infant mortality and improving maternal health outcomes. By making modern health care more accessible and affordable, policymakers hope that more women will seek prenatal care and thereby improve health outcomes. This paper studies how Ghana’s social health insurance program affects prenatal care use and out-of-pocket expenditures, using the two-part model to model prenatal care expenditures. We test whether Ghana’s social health insurance improved prenatal care use, reduced out-of-pocket expenditures, and increased the number of prenatal care visits. District-level differences in the timing of implementation provide exogenous variation in access to health insurance, and therefore strong identification. Those with access to social health insurance have a higher probability of receiving care, a higher number of prenatal care visits, and lower out-of-pocket expenditures conditional on spending on care.     

The numerical approach to classification: a medical application to develop a typology for facial pain

Applications of numerical taxonomy in medicine are relatively rare. We describe an application in which a new typology is developed for the classification of pain distribution in patients with temporomandibular pain dysfunction syndrome. The methodology of the numerical approach is presented and key issues are highlighted, especially relating to validation of taxonomic structure. From the dendrogram obtained by Ward's hierarchical method, five pain groups are distinguished which relate systematically to anatomy and are clinically meaningful. Cluster structure is subjected to a battery of reproducibility tests and is found to be broadly reproducible for different algorithms and sub-samples of subjects. Finally, the new typology is shown to have heuristic value in providing fresh insight into the nature of a complex syndrome.     

Clinical and cost outcomes of medical nutrition therapy for hypercholesterolemia: a controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: To compare the results and cost-effectiveness of a cholesterol lowering protocol implemented by registered dietitians with cholesterol lowering advice by physicians. DESIGN: Six month randomized controlled trial, cost-effectiveness analysis. Subjects included 90 ambulatory care patients (60 men, 30 women), age range 21 to 65 years, with hypercholesterolemia and not taking hypolipidemic drugs. Patients were randomly assigned to receive medical nutrition therapy (MNT) from dietitians using a NCEP based lowering protocol or usual care (UC) from physicians. Outcome measures were plasma lipid profiles, dietary intake, weight, activity, patient satisfaction, and costs of MNT. Changes from baseline for each variable of interest were compared between treatment groups using analysis of covariance controlling for baseline value of the variable and gender. RESULTS: MNT achieved a 6% decrease in total and LDL cholesterol levels at 3 and 6 months compared with a 1% increase and a 2% decrease in both values at 3 and 6 months with UC (P<.001 and P<.05, respectively). Weight loss (1.9 vs 0 kg, P<.001) and dietary intake of saturated fat (7% of energy vs 10%, P<.001) were better in the MNT than the UC group. The additional costs of MNT were $217 per patient to achieve a 6% reduction in cholesterol and $98 per patient to sustain the reduction. The cost-effectiveness ratio for MNT was $36 per 1% decrease in cholesterol and LDL level. APPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: MNT from registered dietitians is a reasonable investment of resources because it results in significantly better lipid, diet, activity, weight, and patient satisfaction outcomes than UC.     

Containing the cost of third-molar extractions: a dilemma for health insurance.

No known scientific studies support the extraction of third molars (wisdom teeth) to prevent future disease. Yet, third-molar surgery for this purpose has become so common that in at least one major U.S. health insurance plan, the cumulative cost exceeds that for every other kind of major surgery. Many third molars that are developing normally in adolescents are classified as impacted and removed before they erupt, a practice that results in large expenditures for unnecessary surgery. In addition, the difficulty of the extractions is frequently exaggerated, so that patients and insurance plans are overcharged. Third molar surgery is not without risk of iatrogenic injury. Fracture of the jaw, permanent numbness of the lip (paresthesia), and injury to other teeth may occur. This paper presents a mechanism for containing the cost of third-molar surgery by elimination of payment for nonessential extractions and of the related overcharges. Adoption of this policy by administrators of dental insurance plans would save millions of dollars each year, money that could be better used in providing care for more people with real dental disease.     

The impact of medical insurance for the poor in Georgia: a regression discontinuity approach

Improving access to health care and financial protection of the poor is a key concern for policymakers in low‐ and middle‐income countries, but there have been few rigorous program evaluations. The Medical Insurance Program for the Poor in the republic of Georgia provides a free and extensive benefit package and operates through a publicly funded voucher program, enabling beneficiaries to choose their own private insurance company. Eligibility is determined by a proxy means test administered to applicant households. The objective of this study is to evaluate the program's impact on key outcomes including utilization, financial risk protection, and health behavior and management. A dedicated survey of approximately 3500 households around the thresholds was designed to minimize unobserved heterogeneity by sampling clusters with both beneficiary and non‐beneficiary households. The research design exploits the sharp discontinuities at two regional eligibility thresholds to estimate local average treatment effects. Results suggest that the program did not affect utilization of health services but decreased mean out‐of‐pocket expenditures for some groups and reduced the risk of high inpatient expenditures. There are no systematic impacts on health behavior, management of chronic illnesses, and patient satisfaction. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The high cost of improper removal of lead-based paint from housing: a case report

The costs of lead-based paint hazard control in housing are well documented, but the costs of cleanup after improper, inherently dangerous, methods of removing lead-based paint are not. In this article we report a case of childhood lead poisoning and document the costs of decontamination after uncontained power sanding was used to remove paint down to bare wood from approximately 3,000 ft(2) of exterior siding on a large, well-maintained 75-year-old house in a middle-income neighborhood. After the uncontrolled removal of lead-based paint, interior dust lead levels ranged from 390 to 27,600 micro g Pb/ft(2) (on floors and windowsills) and bare soil lead levels ranged from 360 ppm in the yard to 3,900 ppm along the foundation to 130,000 ppm in the child's play area, well above applicable U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The hard costs of decontamination were over $195,000, which greatly exceeds the incremental cost of incorporating lead-safe work practices into repainting. This case report highlights the need to incorporate lead-safe work practices into routine repainting, remodeling, and other renovation and maintenance jobs that may disturb lead-based paint.     

Evidence based policy decisions through a Bayesian approach: The case of a statin appraisal in the Netherlands

It has often been suggested that Bayesian statistics is more congenial to the informational needs of policy makers than the standard frequentist methods. In order to illustrate this claim, we use both a Bayesian and a frequentist approach for revisiting a recommendation by the Dutch National Health Insurance Board that for all patients requiring lipid reduction, the cheapest alternative (Simvastatin) should be prescribed. We investigate whether Simvastatin and Atorvastatin, the most commonly used alternative, can be considered equivalent in terms of lipid control for patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia.     

The challenges of achieving high training coverage for IMCI: case studies from Kenya and Tanzania

Health worker training is a key component of the integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI). However, training coverage remains low in many countries. We conducted in-depth case studies in two East African countries to examine the factors underlying low training coverage 10 years after IMCI had been adopted as policy. A document review and in-depth semi-structured interviews with stakeholders at facility, district, regional/provincial and national levels in two districts in Kenya (Homa Bay and Malindi) and Tanzania (Bunda and Tarime) were carried out in 2007-08. Bunda and Malindi achieved higher levels of training coverage (44% and 25%) compared with Tarime and Homa Bay (5% and 13%). Key factors allowing the first two districts to perform better were: strong district leadership and personal commitment to IMCI, which facilitated access to external funding and encouraged local-level policy adaptation; sensitization and training of district health managers; and lower staff turnover. However, IMCI training coverage remained well below target levels across all sites. The main barrier to expanding coverage was the cost of training due to its duration, the number of facilitators and its residential nature. Mechanisms for financing IMCI also restricted district capacity to raise funds. In Tanzania, districts could not spend more than 10% of their budgets on training. In Kenya, limited financial decentralization meant that district managers had to rely on donors for financial support. Critically, the low priority given to IMCI at national and international levels also limited the expansion of training. Levels of domestic and donor support for IMCI have diminished over time in favour of vertical programmes, partly due to the difficulty in monitoring and measuring the impact of an integrated intervention like IMCI. Alternative, lower cost methods of IMCI training need to be promoted, and greater advocacy for IMCI is needed both nationally and internationally.