Author(s)
Imre Boncz, MD, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor And Department Head1, László Kőrösi, MD, Deputy Department Head2, Rita Kövi, MD, Division Head2, Szilárd Varga, MD, Assistant Professor3, Andor Sebestyén, MD, MBA, Deputy Director4, Ildikó Kriszbacher, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor3, József Betlehem, BSc, MSc, PhD, Vice-Dean3, Valentin Brodszky, MD, PhD student5, Krisztian Karpati, economic, PhD student5, Attila Molnár, MSc, Deputy Department Head41University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary; 2 National Health Insurance Fund Administration (OEP), Budapest, Hungary; 3 University of Pécs, Pecs, Hungary; 4 National Health Insurance Fund Administration, Budapest, Hungary; 5 Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
OBJECTIVES On February 15, 2007 new forms of co-payment were introduced in Hungary: visit fee (HUF300/visit) in the primary and outpatient care and hospital daily fee (HUF300/day) in the inpatient care. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of the introduction of visit fee on the number of patient-visits to general practitioners in Hungary. METHODS The data derive from the financial database of the National Health Insurance Fund Administration (OEP) of Hungary covering the period of 2006-2008. We analyzed the number of patient visits during a 6-month period before (from September 2006 to February 2007) and after (from March 2007 to August 2007) the introduction of visit fee. RESULTS During the 6-month period before the introduction of visit fee the total number of visits was 33,694,339, while during the 6-month period after the introduction of visit fee it decreased to 24,901,693. The average monthly number of visits to general practitioners was 5,615,723 before and 4,150,282 after the introduction of visit fee. Both represent a 26.1 % decrease in the number of visits to general practitioners. CONCLUSIONS The introduction of visit fee in Hungary resulted in a significant decrease of patients' visits to general practitioners. However we do not have information whether visits failed to be realized were really unnecessary or not. Other elements of the health care reforms could have also influenced the number of visits.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2009-05, ISPOR 2009, Orlando, FL, USA
Value in Health, Vol. 12, No. 3 (May 2009)
Code
PHP36
Topic
Health Policy & Regulatory
Topic Subcategory
Health Disparities & Equity
Disease
Multiple Diseases
