Author(s)
Imre Boncz, MD, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor And Department Head1, Rita Kövi, MD, Division Head2, László Kőrösi, MD, Deputy Department Head2, Gábor Vas, JD, PhD student3, Szilárd Varga, MD, Assistant Professor3, Ildikó Kriszbacher, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor3, József Betlehem, BSc, MSc, PhD, Vice-Dean3, László Gulácsi, PhD, Associate Professor4, Attila Molnár, MSc, Deputy Department Head5, Andor Sebestyén, MD, MBA, Deputy Director51University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary; 2 National Health Insurance Fund Administration (OEP), Budapest, Hungary; 3 University of Pécs, Pecs, Hungary; 4 Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary; 5 National Health Insurance Fund Administration, Budapest, Hungary
OBJECTIVES On the February 15, 2007 new forms of co-payment were introduced in Hungary: visit fee (HUF300/visit °Ö 1.1 Euro) in the outpatient care and hospital daily fee (HUF300/day °Ö 1.1 Euro) in the inpatient care. Both regulations were withdrawn by a nationwide referendum as of April 2008. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of the withdrawal of hospital daily fee on the number of inpatient admissions to acute care hospital wards 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 admissions during a 7-month period before (from September 2007 to March 2008) and after (from April 2008 to October 2008) the withdrawal of daily fee. RESULTS During the 7-month period before the withdrawal of hospital daily fee the total number of admissions was 1.245.605, while during the 7-month period after the withdrawal of daily fee it increased to 1.284.430. The average monthly number of admissions was 177.944 before and 183.490 after the withdrawal of daily fee. Both represent a 3.1 % increase in the number of acute care admissions. CONCLUSIONS The withdrawal of hospital daily fee in the Hungarian inpatient care resulted in a significant increase (3.1 %) of acute inpatient care admissions on a short-term.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2009-05, ISPOR 2009, Orlando, FL, USA
Value in Health, Vol. 12, No. 3 (May 2009)
Code
PHP35
Topic
Health Policy & Regulatory
Topic Subcategory
Health Disparities & Equity
Disease
Multiple Diseases
