The Effect of Dental Global Budget on Dentists'' Behavior

• Main Authors: Ying Ho, 何瑛
• Other Authors: Wei-Yao Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/61190350915938424456

碩士 === 長榮大學 === 醫務管理學系碩士班 === 91 === Objectives. This study aims to examine the dentists'' behavior with a focus on the effect of dental global budget. This study specifically aims to answer the following 2 questions: 1.Have dentists increased volume or price of services after implementing dental global budget ? 2.Have dentists increased the volume of services in higher price after implementing dental global budget ? Data. Data on dental claim were obtained from the Dental Ambulatory Care Expenditures by visits, National Health Insurance Research Database. Data on contracted medical facilities were from the Registration Files, National Health Insurance Research Database. Data on population, dependency ratio and urbanization were from the Taiwan-Fukien Demographic Fact Book. Data on the number of dentists were derived from the Dental Ambulatory Care Expenditures by visits and the Registration Files, National Health Insurance Research Database. Designs. Ecological pre-post longitudinal study on dentists'' behavior of townships from 1996 to 2001. The volume, price, the substitution volume of replaceable services between higher price and lower price were used to measure dentists'' behavior. Setting. 291 townships with complete claim data from 1996 to 2001 in Taiwan. Main outcome measures. The number of visits and its growth rate , the average price per claim and its growth rate, the volume and growth rate of the replaceable dental cavity services between teeth composite in higher price and amalgam restoration in lower price. Results. Between 1997 and 1999, the number of visits per township increased from 73,702 to 80,332 (t=9.3, p<0.001); the average price per claim per township increased from 863 to 948 NT. dollars (t=19.4, p<0.001); the growth rate of the volume of teeth composite per township increased from 0.63 to 0.79 and the growth rate of the volume of amalgam restoration per township decreased from 0.19 to 0.07, but the growth of both services had no statistically significant differences in volume. The results of multiple regression showed that dental global budget had positive coefficient with the number of visits, the average price per claim and the volume of teeth composite (the number of visits: ß=6,629.23, p<0.01; the average price per claim: ß=84.41, p<0.001; the volume of teeth composite: ß=7,732.22, p<0.001); dental global budget had negative coefficient with the volume of amalgam restoration (ß= -1,269.56, p<0.05) after controlling for urbanization, population, dependency ratio and dentist-population ratio. Conclusions. Dental global budget may affect dentists'' behavior.