Discrimination in waiting times by insurance type and financial soundness of German acute care hospitals

This paper shows that patients with private health insurance (PHI) are being offered significantly shorter waiting times than patients with statutory health insurance (SHI) in German acute hospital care. This behavior may be driven by the higher expected profitability of PHI relative to SHI holders. Further, we find that hospitals offering private insurees shorter waiting times when compared with SHI holders have a significantly better financial performance than those abstaining from or with less discrimination.     

Der informierte Patient aus Sicht der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung

By introducing competition into the statutory health insurance system the model of the informed patient has obtained new importance. As corporations of public law,more than 350 statutory health insurance funds (SHI funds) fulfil original tasks of in-forming and counselling patients. Although the SHI funds lack incentives for more patient orientation due to an inadequate risk equalization scheme, the SHI funds are extending their competences to support health consumer protection. On the one hand, attractive offers for information and counselling are being regarded as an important competitive field in the framework of the respective corporate strategy. On the other hand, the SHI funds are highly interested in having well-informed patients assume personal responsibility and through their well-directed demands contribute to more quality and efficiency in the healthcare system. Which objective need for in-formation does the population still have?What are the effects of medical lay knowledge on the communication between doc-tor and patient? From the SHI funds' point of view, however, there are many relevant questions still unsolved. Therefore, they consider health care research desirable to help them make user-oriented information avail-able for different target groups.     

Disease management and health care reforms in Germany - does more competition lead to less solidarity?

Up to the 1990s German health care legislation was dominated by measures regulating the supply side. Measures, such as budgets, aimed at volume control and sought to confine the increase of health care spending to the growth of the national income. To curb costs more effectively, competitive elements were introduced in the 1990s with free choice of sickness funds (open enrollment). To balance competition and solidarity, a risk compensation scheme (RCS) was implemented two years prior to open enrollment. Since then, balancing competition and solidarity has been a key feature of all consecutive health care reforms. The implementation of disease management programs in the statutory health insurance (SHI) served the dual purpose to promote quality of care and to foster competition. Preliminary experiences suggest, that the aligning of disease management programs with a RCS can greatly aid its implementation and benefit solidarity and competition.     

Regional distribution of physicians: the role of comprehensive private health insurance in Germany

Objective

In recent years, the co-existence in Germany of two parallel comprehensive insurance systems—statutory health insurance (SHI) and private health insurance (PHI)—has been posited as a possible cause of a persistent unequal regional distribution of physicians. The present study investigates the effect of the proportion of privately insured patients on the density of SHI-licensed physicians, while controlling for regional variations in the average income from SHI patients.

Methods

The proportion of residents in a district with private health insurance is estimated using complete administrative data from the SHI system and the German population census. Missing values are estimated using multiple imputation techniques. All models control for the estimated average income ambulatory physicians generate from treating SHI insured patients and a well-defined set of covariates on the level of districts in Germany in 2010.

Results

Our results show that every percentage change in the proportion of residents with private health insurance is associated with increases of 2.1 and 1.3 % in the density of specialists and GPs respectively. Higher SHI income in rural areas does not compensate for this effect.

Conclusion

From a financial perspective, it is rational for a physician to locate a new practice in a district with a high proportion of privately insured patients. From the perspective of patients in the SHI system, the incentive effects of PHI presumably contribute to a concentration of health care services in wealthy and urban areas. To date, the needs-based planning mechanism has been unable to address this imbalance.

     

Copayments for ambulatory care in Germany: a natural experiment using a difference-in-difference approach

In response to increasing health expenditures and a high number of physician visits, the German government introduced a copayment for ambulatory care in 2004 for individuals with statutory health insurance (SHI). Because persons with private insurance were exempt from the copayments, this health-care reform can be regarded as a natural experiment. We used a difference-in-difference approach to examine whether the new copayment effectively reduced the overall demand for physician visits and to explore whether it acted as a deterrent to vulnerable groups, such as those with low income or chronic conditions. We found that there was no significant reduction in the number of physician visits among SHI members compared to our control group. At the same time, we did not observe a deterrent effect among vulnerable individuals. Thus, the copayment has failed to reduce the demand for physician visits. It is likely that this result is due to the design of the copayment scheme, as the copayment is low and is paid only for the first physician visit per quarter.     

Universal Health Insurance in India: Ensuring Equity, Efficiency, and Quality

Indian health system is characterized by a vast public health infrastructure which lies underutilized, and a largely unregulated private market which caters to greater need for curative treatment. High out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditures poses barrier to access for healthcare. Among those who get hospitalized, nearly 25% are pushed below poverty line by catastrophic impact of OOP healthcare expenditure. Moreover, healthcare costs are spiraling due to epidemiologic, demographic, and social transition. Hence, the need for risk pooling is imperative. The present article applies economic theories to various possibilities for providing risk pooling mechanism with the objective of ensuring equity, efficiency, and quality care. Asymmetry of information leads to failure of actuarially administered private health insurance (PHI). Large proportion of informal sector labor in India''s workforce prevents major upscaling of social health insurance (SHI). Community health insurance schemes are difficult to replicate on a large scale. We strongly recommend institutionalization of tax-funded Universal Health Insurance Scheme (UHIS), with complementary role of PHI. The contextual factors for development of UHIS are favorable. SHI schemes should be merged with UHIS. Benefit package of this scheme should include preventive and in-patient curative care to begin with, and gradually include out-patient care. State-specific priorities should be incorporated in benefit package. Application of such an insurance system besides being essential to the goals of an effective health system provides opportunity to regulate private market, negotiate costs, and plan health services efficiently. Purchaser-provider split provides an opportunity to strengthen public sector by allowing providers to compete.     

Economic impact of disease prevention in a morbidity-based financing system: does prevention pay off for a statutory health insurance fund in Germany?

The European Journal of Health Economics - Preventable chronic diseases account for the greatest burden in the German health system and statutory health insurance (SHI) funds play a crucial role in...     

One hundred and eighteen years of the German health insurance system: are there any lessons for middle- and low-income countries?

A number of low and middle income countries (LMICs) are considering social health insurance (SHI) for adoption into their social and economic environment or striving to sustain and improve already existing SHI schemes. SHI was first introduced in Germany in 1883. An analysis of the German system from its inception up to today may yield lessons relevant to other countries. Such an analysis, however, is largely lacking, especially with regard to LMICs. This paper attempts to fill this gap. For each of the following lessons, it considers if and under which conditions they may be of relevance to LMICs. First, small, informal, voluntary health insurance schemes may serve as learning models for fund administration and solidarity, but in order to achieve universal coverage government action is needed to formalise these schemes and to introduce a principle of compulsion. Once compulsory health insurance exists for some people, incremental expansion of coverage to other regions and social groups may be feasible to achieve universality. Second, in order to ensure sustainability of SHI, the mandated benefit package should be adapted incrementally in accordance with changing needs, values and economic circumstances. Third. in a pluralistic SHI system equity, as well as risk pooling and spreading, can be enhanced if funds merge. The optimal number of funds, however, will depend on the stage of development of the SHI system as well as on other objectives of the system, including choice and competition. A risk equalisation scheme may prevent the adverse effects of risk selection, if competition between insurance funds is introduced into the system. Fourth, as an alternative to both state and market regulation, self-governance may serve as a source of stability and sustainability as well as a means of decentralising and democratising a health care system. Finally, costs can be successfully contained in a fee-for-service system, if cost-escalating provider behaviour is constrained by either political pressure or technical means.     

从国际经验谈我国商业医疗保险经办社会医疗保险

通过对部分实施社会保险体制国家的医疗保障制度作文献整理,分析在社会医疗保险背景下,商业保险的发展现状、实施效果以及与社会医疗保险相互关系等,探索我国商业保险经办社会医疗保险的可行性,为完善我国医疗保障制度提供经验证据。     

Germany's disease management program: improving outcomes in congestive heart failure

Hospital admissions among patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) are a major contributor to health care costs. A comprehensive disease management program for CHF was developed for private and statutory health insurance companies in order to improve health outcomes and reduce rehospitalization rates and costs. The program comprises care calls, written training material, telemetric monitoring, and health reports. Currently, 909 members from six insurance companies are enrolled. Routine evaluation, based on medical data warehouse software, demonstrates benefits in terms of improved health outcomes and processes of care. Economical evaluation of claims data indicates significant cost savings in a pre/post study design.     

Gesundheitsausgabenrechnung nach Alter und Geschlecht

The new German health expenditure data system, which the Federal Statistics Office compiles, corresponds with the methodology of the System of Health Accounts (SHA) which Eurostat and the OECD jointly developed together with the member states at roughly the same time. This system allows the allocation of health expenditure in three dimensions: by expenditure type (function), by the provider of the remunerated services (providers), and by the source of funding (financers). It includes the expenditure of private households and is consistent with the System of National Accounts methodology. The assumption that health expenditure is potentially becoming more and more determined by demographic influences (e.g. ageing populations) has created the need at an European level to study whether or not the participating countries could provide health expenditure data broken down by five rather than the original three SHA dimensions, i.e. to sub-categorize health expenditure by the age and gender of patients receiving health care services. Some countries (among them Germany) have carried out respective pilot studies for pharmaceutical expenditure, others for inpatient curative care. The German pilot study started with pharmaceutical expenditure (including medical goods provided by pharmacies) for the respective sources of funding, taken from the German health expenditure data system. Specific data sources – chosen separately for each source of funding – were used to break down the respective total expenditure by the 202 cells derived from the chosen age and gender categories, the most important being the stratified age-specific expenditure profile for the sector ?pharmacies“ used by the statutory Health Insurance System within the framework of the health risk equalization scheme, and the statistics of both the Statutory Accident Insurance System and private health insurance companies. The final project report ?Age- and gender-specific functional health accounts“ will be published by Eurostat shortly. It will contain the first estimates of comparable age and gender related health expenditure data for selected participating countries.     

Unterschiede in den soziodemografischen Merkmalen,der Gesundheit und Inanspruchnahme bei Kindern und Jugendlichen nach ihrer Krankenkassenzugehörigkeit

Differences in the socioeconomic characteristics and morbidity between members of German private and statutory health insurance funds and also between several statutory health insurances have been shown for adults. We used data from the National Health Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) to study differences in sociodemographic characteristics, health risks, morbidity, and health service use in child and adolescent insurants of different types of health insurance funds (Ersatzkasse, Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse, Betriebskrankenkasse , Innungskrankenkasse, other statutory health insurance funds, private health insurance). Differences in the proportion of respondents with a migration background, somatic diseases, psychopathological problems, and contact with a dentist between the different health insurance fund types were found. These results should be considered in studies on health inequalities, which often focus solely on differences between statutory and private health insurance. Our results are also of relevance for health services research using the claims data of health insurance funds.     

A Multi-Perspective Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Comparing Rivaroxaban with Enoxaparin Sodium for Thromboprophylaxis after Total Hip and Knee Replacement in the German Healthcare Setting

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing major orthopaedic surgery (MOS), such as total hip (THR) or total knee replacement (TKR), are at high risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE). For thromboembolism prophylaxis, the oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban has recently been included in the German diagnosis related group (DRG) system. However, the cost-effectiveness of rivaroxaban is still unclear from both the German statutory health insurance (SHI) and the German hospital perspective. Objectives To assess the cost-effectiveness of rivaroxaban from the German statutory health insurance (SHI) perspective and to analyse financial incentives from the German hospital perspective. METHODS: Based on data from the RECORD trials and German cost data, a decision tree was built. The model was run for two settings (THR and TKR) and two perspectives (SHI and hospital) per setting. RESULTS: Prophylaxis with rivaroxaban reduces VTE events (0.02 events per person treated after TKR; 0.007 after THR) compared with enoxaparin. From the SHI perspective, prophylaxis with rivaroxaban after TKR is cost saving (E27.3 saving per patient treated). However, the costeffectiveness after THR (E17.8 cost per person) remains unclear because of stochastic uncertainty. From the hospital perspective, for given DRGs, the hospital profit will decrease through the use of rivaroxaban by E20.6 (TKR) and E31.8 (THR) per case respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our findings, including rivaroxaban for reimbursement in the German DRG system seems reasonable. Yet, adequate incentives for German hospitals to use rivaroxaban are still lacking.     

Quantifying delay in access to new medical treatment: an application of risk advancement period methodology

BACKGROUND: We present a novel application of the concept of risk or rate advancement to compute the extent of delay in adoption of an effective new drug in 2 German health insurance systems. METHODS: We identified individuals with migraines, age 18 to 65 years, in 371 primary care practices in Germany in 1994 (MediPlus, IMS Health database). These included 8173 persons covered under the statutory health insurance system and 503 persons covered by private health insurance. We derived risk and population risk advancement periods for sumatriptan compared with nonserotoninergic acute migraine therapy using multiplicative risk regression and generalized estimating equations, adjusted for patient, physician, and practice cofactors. RESULTS: For patients at the mean age of the cohort, 43 years of age, sumatriptan was prescribed 1.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.3-2.0) years later among those in the statutory health insurance system compared with those who had private insurance. The lag increased by 0.6 (-0.1 to 1.3) years for every 10 years of patient age. In the age-mix of our sample, access to the health benefits of sumatriptan therapy lagged nearly 1.5 years behind in the statutory health insurance system and for Germany as a whole. CONCLUSIONS: Migraine patients' access to sumatriptan therapy lagged substantially in the statutory health insurance system and in the country as a whole. Risk advancement periods provide a useful methodology for communicating major healthcare issues in a meaningful way to society and policymakers.     

The influence of insurance status on waiting times in German acute care hospitals: an empirical analysis of new data

Background

There is an ongoing debate in Germany about the assumption that patients with private health insurance (PHI) benefit from better access to medical care, including shorter waiting times (Lüngen et al. 2008), compared to patients with statutory health insurance (SHI).

Problem

Existing analyses of the determinants for waiting times in Germany are a) based on patient self-reports and b) do not cover the inpatient sector. This paper aims to fill both gaps by (i) generating new primary data and (ii) analyzing waiting times in German hospitals.

Methods

We requested individual appointments from 485 hospitals within an experimental study design, allowing us to analyze the impact of PHI versus SHI on waiting times (Asplin et al. 2005).

Results

In German acute care hospitals patients with PHI have significantly shorter waiting times than patients with SHI.

Conclusion

Discrimination in waiting times by insurance status does occur in the German acute hospital sector. Since there is very little transparency in treatment quality in Germany, we do not know whether discrimination in waiting times leads to discrimination in the quality of treatment. This is an important issue for future research.     

The effect of a ban on gender‐based pricing on risk selection in the German health insurance market

Starting from December 2012, insurers in the European Union were prohibited from charging gender‐discriminatory prices. We examine the effect of this unisex mandate on risk segmentation in the German health insurance market. Although gender used to be a pricing factor in Germany's private health insurance (PHI) sector, it was never used as a pricing factor in the social health insurance (SHI) sector. The unisex mandate makes PHI relatively more attractive for women and less attractive for men. Based on data from the German socio‐economic panel, we analyze how the unisex mandate affects the difference between women and men in switching rates between SHI and PHI. We find that the unisex mandate increases the probability of switching from SHI to PHI for women relative to men. On the other hand, the unisex mandate has no effect on the gender difference in switching rates from PHI to SHI. Because women have on average higher health care expenditures than men, our results imply a worsening of the PHI risk pool and an improvement of the SHI risk pool. Our results demonstrate that regulatory measures such as the unisex mandate can affect risk selection between public and private health insurance sectors.     

Healthcare financing in Yemen

Yemen is a low‐middle‐income country where more than half of the population live in rural areas and lack access to the most basic health care. At US$40 per capita, Yemen's annual total health expenditure (THE) is among the lowest worldwide. This study analyses the preconditions and options for implementing basic social health protection in Yemen. It reveals a four‐tiered healthcare system characterised by high geographic and financial access barriers mainly for the poor. Out‐of‐pocket payments constitute 55% of THE, and cost‐sharing exemption schemes are not well organised. Resource‐allocation practices are inequitable because about 30% of THE gets spent on treatment abroad for a small number of patients, mainly from better‐off families. Against the background of a lack of social health protection, a series of small‐scale and often informal solidarity schemes have developed, and a number of public and private companies have set up health benefit schemes for their employees. Employment‐based schemes usually provide reasonable health care at an average annual cost of YR44 000 (US$200) per employee. In contrast, civil servants contribute to a mandatory health‐insurance scheme without receiving any additional health benefits in return. A number of options for initiating a pathway towards a universal health‐insurance system are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

荷兰健康保险制度改革经验及启示

文章对荷兰健康保险制度改革的历史过程以及现状进行描述分析,总结荷兰健康保险制度改革的特点：建立基于管理型竞争的强制性私立健康保险;私立保险方竞争获得更多的参保人员;政府对保险方和提供者的行为进行监管并提供相关信息;建立了风险均等化制度,消除不同保险方的风险差异。荷兰健康保险制度改革为我国健康保险制度进一步完善提供一些借鉴：消除不同健康保险制度的差距,保障一致性;建立风险均等化制度,调整不同基金池间的风险;商业保险机构参与经办健康保险管理服务;加强医保第三方对供方行为的制约和监督。