Is There a Difference in the Utilisation of Inpatient Services Between Two Typical Payment Methods of Health Insurance? Evidence from the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme in China

Dai Su, Yingchun Chen, Hongxia Gao, Haomiao Li, Jingjing Chang, Shihan Lei, Di Jiang, Xiaomei Hu, Min Tan and Zhifang Chen
Additional contact information
Dai Su: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Yingchun Chen: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Hongxia Gao: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Haomiao Li: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Jingjing Chang: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Shihan Lei: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Di Jiang: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Xiaomei Hu: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Min Tan: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
Zhifang Chen: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the differences between two typical payment methods for the new rural cooperative medical scheme (NRCMS) in China on the utilisation of inpatient services. Interrupted time-series analysis (ITSA) and propensity score matching (PSM) were used to measure the difference between two typical payment methods for the NRCMS with regard to the utilisation of inpatient services. After the reform was formally implemented, the level and slope difference after reform compared with pre-intervention (distribution of inpatients in county hospitals (DIC), distribution of inpatients in township hospitals (DIT) and the actual compensation ratio of inpatients (ARCI)) were not statistically significant. Kernel matching obtained better results in reducing the mean and median of the absolute standardised bias of covariates of appropriateness of admission (AA), appropriateness of disease (AD). The difference in AA and AD of the matched inpatients between two groups was −0.03 ( p -value = 0.042, 95% CI: −0.08 to 0.02) and 0.21 ( p -value < 0.001, 95% CI: −0.17 to 0.25), respectively. The differences in the utilisation of inpatient services may arise owing to the system designs of different payment methods for NRCMS in China. The causes of these differences can be used to guide inpatients to better use medical services, through the transformation and integration of payment systems.

Keywords: difference; utilisation of inpatient services; payment method; new rural cooperative medical scheme; interrupted time-series analysis; propensity score matching; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/8/1410/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/8/1410/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:8:p:1410-:d:224267

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().