| Summary: | 碩士 === 東海大學 === 工業工程與經營資訊學系 === 97 === Objective
To investigate the differences of healthcare utilizations before and after the financial incentive decreasing on the asthma patients of Mid-Taiwan.
Subjects and Method
A case-control study design with the fixed effect model was used. 41,378 asthma patients were taken from the Central Region Branch of the Bureau of National Health Insurance. Analyses had been performed to compare the healthcare utilizations for patients who did and did not participate in the financial incentive program. The analyses had been done for both the higher and lower incentive programs in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Additionally, analysis had been performed to compare the healthcare utilizations for patients who attended the higher incentive program in 2006 and for the patients who attended the lower incentive program in 2007.
Results
The total healthcare expenditure on patients with the incentive program was significantly higher than the expenditure on patients who did not attend the incentive program, no matter the incentive program was high or low. However, the average numbers and expenses of ER visits, and the average times, length, and expenses of hospitalizations for the patients in the incentive program were lower than the patients who did not attended the program. The comparison on the total expenditures for patients who attended the high and the low incentive programs indicated no difference.
Conclusions
The quality of care was increased for the asthma patients under the incentive program, even though the total healthcare utilization was higher. However, there was no difference on the total expenditures for patients who attended a higher or lower program. It is suggested that if the increment on the care quality was acceptable, the national healthcare insurance can continue the high incentive program.
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