Background: Informal payments can cause delayed access to health care services, forcing people to sell their properties for cost of treatment; and as a result, they lose trust in the health system. Considering the importance of this issue, this study was conducted in 2016 to identify solutions to reduce and eliminate informal payments in Iran’s health system.    Methods: Initia...

Background One of the objectives of the health transformation plan (HTP) in Iran is to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for inpatient services and eradicate informal payments. The HTP has three phases: the first phase (launched in May 5, 2014) is focused on reducing OOP payments for inpatient services; the second phase (launched in May 22, 2014) is focused on primary healthcare (PHC) and the...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of managed care on the use of chronic disease medications. DATA SOURCE Claims data from 1997 from two indemnity and three independent practice association (IPA) model managed care insurance plans. RESEARCH DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis of claims data. DATA COLLECTION Adult patients with diabetes mellitus (DM, n = 26,444), congestive heart failure (CHF, n...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the effect of different forms of patient cost-sharing on the utilization of clinical preventive services or if the effect varies by type of health plan. OBJECTIVES To assess empirically the relationships between the utilization of recommended preventive services and different forms of patient cost-sharing and how the effect is mediated by type of preventive se...

Indemnity private health insurance (PHI) is a type of that pays actual medical expenses. We investigated the effect subscriptions to indemnity PHI on emergency department (ED) expenses and number ED visits. This study was retrospective using Korea Health Panel Data from 2013 2017. The exposure variable subscription PHI. control group did not subscribe throughout period, while insured had subscr...