• Journal of Digital Policy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2022

This Study will focus the fact that large portion of inpatient treatment cost might incurred in nursing hospital and consider whether policy of allowing inpatient treatment is appropriate or not. Finally This study will suggest alternative way to make improvement based on cases from other countries. This study use data published by Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service. & National Health Insurance Service which is very reliable. This Study found biggest medical spending in allowance of medical care is inpatient treatment cost and large portion of inpatient treatment cost might incurred in nursing hospital. This Study found policy of allowing patient to get inpatient treatment is not clearly determinded. Therefore patient who don't actullay need medical service enter and stay in nursing hospital. Their inpatient treatment cost is paid by allowance of medical care and this cost is unnescessary medical cost. This study suggest policy of allowing patient need to be clear. Government should mandate nursing hospital to check whether patient's condition is appropriate to enter and stay in nursing hospital. This study suggest way to reduce unnecessary inpatient treatment cost incurred in nursing hospital

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.21-42
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• 2008

This study investigates economies of scale, cost complementarity and economies of scope for healthcare organizations using econometric approaches. The economies of scale appear to exist in each service provided by a hospital such as inpatient treatment services, outpatient treatment services, and other patient treatment services, respectively. When we test all services in aggregate level, it also indicates that the healthcare industry on average exhibits the economies of scale of 6 percent, which implies that scaling up hospital sizes will bring substantial cost savings to them Evidence shows that cost complementarity exists between outpatient services and other services for patients and, i.e., these other services for patients experience the reduction in marginal costs as the outputs of the outpatient services increase. For the economies of scope, they are present in most service areas; aggregate level services, outpatient services, and other services for patients, respectively. Inpatient treatment services, however, do not show any evidence of the economies of scope. Results show that the economies of scope are achieved by the general hospital type that provides all service areas such as inpatient treatments, outpatient treatments, and other services for patients. The existence of the economies of scope provides the rationale for extending the existing line of business in a hospital into more diverse areas of services where its benefit comes in the form of cost savings. In sum, it overall provides evidence that the M&As in this industry are encouraged to achieve cost reductions from the economies of scale and scope by changing the size and the output mix.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.16-30
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• 2004

Background: Although the number of cancer patients increase, the resources for cancer management are not increased. If the outpatient chemotherapy administration room is operated, the shift of patients from inpatient 10 outpatient is occurred. So the capacities for chemotherapy increased and the shifted rooms were occupied with new non-chemotherapy patients. The income of the hospital increased. The purpose of this study was to assess usefulness and cost-effectiveness of the outpatient-chemotherapy adminstration model. Method: There are six beds, two chairs and two nurses and one personnel in the outpatient chemotherapy room. The satisfaction study by patients/family and doctors and the cost analysis over 12 months, by comparing costs of chemotherapy administration at outpatient chemotherapy room with inpatient at ward and inpatient-nonchemotherapy at ward were done. Results: The 97.1 percent of patients/family and the 94.4 percent of doctor who involved chemotherapy were satisfied with outpatient chemotherapy administration. The 91.7% of doctors said there were no differences in treatment outcome between outpatient and inpatient chemotherapy administration. The average number of patients in outpatient chemotherapy room increased from 10.7 to 15.4 but in inpatient from 19.4 to 18.3. The average number of inpatient chemotherapy were not changed related to increase of the average number of outpatient chemotherapy. The profit between outpatient chemotherapy and inpatient chemotherapy administration was 45,344,710 won and the profit between outpatient chemotherapy and non chemotherapy treatment was -185,294,614 won. Conclusion: The outpatient chemotherapy administration model is good for patients/family, doctors and hospital partially. But the hypothesis described above was not correct. The process of cancer patients treatment were from diagnosis and treatment to first administration of chemotherapy. So the shift from inpatient to outpatient was not occurred. In economic aspect, the profit between outpatient chemotherapy and non chemotherapy treatment was in the red. As the level of health care fees was so low, the hospitals hesitate operating the room of outpatient chemotherapy. It is necessary to raise the level of health case fees for outpatient chemotherapy administration.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.363-371
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• 2008

Purpose: This analysis was conducted to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of gemcitabine-cisplatin chemotherapy for non small-cell lung cancer patients in an outpatient setting compared with the traditional inpatient setting. Methods: A cost-effective analysis was conducted from a societal perspective. The effects of treatment, which was measured as an adverse event rate, were abstracted from a published literature search and empirical data from one university hospital. The costs included both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs included hospitalizations, outpatient visits, and lab tests. Pharmaceutical costs were excluded in analysis because they were same for both options. Indirect costs included productivity loss of patients as well as care-givers. In order to determine the robustness of the results, sensitivity analysis on treatment protocol was conducted. Results: Literature search showed no difference in adverse effect rates between inpatient treatment protocol and outpatient treatment protocol. Therefore, this analysis is a cost-minimization analysis. Cost-savings in the outpatient setting was 555,936 won for one treatment cycle. Our sensitivity analysis indicated that the outpatient chemotherapy still showed cost-savings, regardless of changes in treatment protocol. Conclusion: The outpatient gemcitabine-cisplatin chemotherapy for non small-cell lung cancer resulted in cost savings compared to inpatient chemotherapy. More importantly, outpatient chemotherapy could improve the utilization of health service resources in terms of available beds.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.154-163
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• 2022

Background: The costliness index (CI) is an index that is used in various ways to improve the quality of medical care and the management of appropriate treatment in medical institutions. However, the current calculation method for CI has a limitation in reflecting the actual medical cost of the patient unit because the outpatient and inpatient costs are evaluated separately. It is desirable to calculate the CI by integrating the medical cost into the episode unit. Methods: We developed an episode-based CI method using the episode classification system of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the National Inpatient Sample data in Korea, which can integrate the admission and ambulatory care cost to episode unit. Additionally, we compared our new method with the previous method. Results: In some episodes, the correlation between previous and episode-based CI was low, and the proportion of outpatient treatment costs in total cost and readmission rates are high. As a result of regression analysis, it is possible that the level of total medical costs of the patient unit in low volume medical institute and rural area has been underestimated. Conclusion: High proportion of outpatient treatment cost in total medical cost means that some medical institutions may have provided medical services in the ambulatory care that are ancillary to inpatient treatment. In addition, a high readmission rate indicates insufficient treatment service for inpatients, which means that previous CI may not accurately reflect actual patient-based treatment costs. Therefore, an integrated patient-unit classification system which can be used as a more effective CI indicator is needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 2022

The costliness index (CI) is an index that is used in various ways to improve the quality of medical care and the management of appropriate treatment in medical institutions. However, the current calculation method for CI has a limitation in reflecting the actual medical cost of the patient unit because the outpatient and inpatient costs are evaluated separately. It is desirable to calculate the CI by integrating the medical cost into the episode unit. We developed an episode-based CI method using the episode classification system of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the National Inpatient Sample data in Korea, which can integrate the admission and ambulatory care cost to episode unit. Additionally, we compared our new method with the previous method. In some episodes, the correlation between previous and episode-based CI was low, and the proportion of outpatient treatment costs in total cost and readmission rates are high. As a result of regression analysis, it is possible that the level of total medical costs of the patient unit in low volume medical institute and rural area has been underestimated. High proportion of outpatient treatment cost in total medical cost means that some medical institutions may have provided medical services in the ambulatory care that are ancillary to inpatient treatment. In addition, a high readmission rate indicates insufficient treatment service for inpatients, which means that previous CI may not accurately reflect actual patient-based treatment costs. Therefore, an integrated patient-unit classification system which can be used as a more effective CI indicator is needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.1-14
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to estimate the magnitude of patient's actual cost-sharing for hospital services in the National Health Insurance which has been estimated with only a few hospitals or limited number of patients. Also we aimed at analysis of factors influencing the magnitude. Sources of analyzed data were two databases. 1997 medical benefits record of the National Federation of Medical Insurance and 1997 Statistics for Hospital Management from the Korea Institute of Health Services Management(KIHM). We merged two databases and related records for 224 hospitals. based on the identification details of each hospital. The average percent of patients' cost-sharing was 51.7% of total hospital revenues from the insurance. with 40.3% of revenue in inpatient and 67.4% in outpatient. respectively. The contributing hospital factors to the magnitude of cost-sharing were size of hospitals. teaching status. location. number of employed physicians. etc. Larger and university hospital. urban location. and with more physicians were positively correlated with higher level of cost-sharing. Additionally, the higher the expenses of inpatient's treatment was, the higher the size of patient's cost-sharing was. These findings suggest that present level of patients' cost-sharing is quitely high and it is urgent to reduce the patient's cost-sharing to the reasonable level. It would be necessary to extend the coverage of insurance benefits and to develop policies focusing on larger hospitals and inpatient services.

• Journal of Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.380-389
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• 2023

Objective: Middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAe) has burgeoned as a treatment for chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH). This study evaluates the safety and short-term outcomes of MMAe patients relative to traditional treatment approaches. Methods: In this retrospective large database study, adult patients in the National Inpatient Sample from 2012-2019 with a diagnosis of cSDH were identified. Cost of admission, length of stay (LOS), discharge disposition, and complications were analyzed. Propensity score matching (PSM) was utilized. Results: A total of 123,350 patients with cSDH were identified: 63,450 without intervention, 59,435 surgery only, 295 MMAe only, and 170 surgery plus MMAe. On PSM analysis, MMAe did not increase the risk of inpatient complications or prolong the length of stay compared to conservative management (p>0.05); MMAe had higher cost ($31,170 vs. $10,768, p<0.001) than conservative management, and a lower rate of nonroutine discharge (53.8% vs. 64.3%, p=0.024). Compared to surgery, MMAe had shorter LOS (5 vs. 7 days, p<0.001), and lower rates of neurological complications (2.7% vs. 7.1%, p=0.029) and nonroutine discharge (53.8% vs. 71.7%, p<0.001). There was no significant difference in cost (p>0.05). Conclusions: MMAe had similar LOS and decreased odds of adverse discharge with a modest cost increase compared to conservative management. There was no difference in inpatient complications. Compared to surgery, MMAe treatment was associated with decreased LOS and rates of neurological complications and nonroutine discharge. This nationwide analysis supports the safety of MMAe to treat cSDH.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2021

Background: With increasing economic evaluation studies on the treatment of or screening tools for liver diseases that cause hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), interest in the analysis of the medical utilization and costs of HCC treatment is increasing. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the medical utilization and costs of HCC patients, and calculate the cost of main procedures for HCC treatment, including liver transplant (LT), hepatic resection (HR), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods: We analyzed claim data from January to December 2018 from the Health Insurance and Review and Assessment Service-National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS-2018) dataset, including data of patients diagnosed with HCC (Korean Standard Classification of Diseases code C22.0) who had at least one inpatient claim for HCC. Results: A total of 715 HCC patients were identified. In 2018, the yearly average medical cost per HCC patient was ₩18,460K (thousand), of which ₩14,870K was attributed to HCC. Among the total medical costs of HCC patients, the inpatient cost accounted for the largest portion of both the total medical and HCC-related costs. The major procedures of HCC treatment occurred most frequently in the order of TACE, RFA, HR, and LT. The average medical cost per treatment episode was the highest for LT (₩87,280K), followed by HR (₩10,026K), TACE (₩4,047K), and RFA (₩2,927K). Conclusion: By identifying the medical costs of HCC patients and the costs of the main procedures of HCC treatment, our results provide basic information that could be utilized for cost estimation in liver disease-related economic evaluation studies.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.98-110
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the medical cost of facial paralysis in payer perspective and to estimate the practice pattern of patient using 2011 Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service-National Patients Sample(HIRA-NPS). Methods: Basic statistical system was used for descriptive analysis of NPS dataset. A table for general information (table20) was extracted by disease code, and social demographic characteristics, distribution of the use among inpatients and outpatients, utilization of each kind of medical care institutions, medical cost were analyzed. Subgroup analysis was conducted for assuming the practice pattern of korean medicine and western medicine. Results: A total of 8,219 people and 64,345 claims data were identified as having facial paralysis. Proportion of outpatient was 95.23%, inpatient 0.84% and patient using both services 3.93%. Mean patient charges was 44,229 won per outpatient, 178,886 won per inpatient and 523,542 won per patient using both services. Utilization of korean medical care institutions was 68.81%(claims), 40.46%(patients), utilization of western medical care institutions was 31.19%(claims), 59.54%(patients). The amount charged by korean medical care institutions was 52.61% and western medical care institutions was 47.39%. Cost per claim was higher than those of the korean treatment and cost per patient of western treatment was lower than those of the korean treatment. Conclusions: The research assessed the medical cost and practice pattern associated with facial paralysis. These findings could be used in health care policy and subsequent studies.