The discussion between general practitioners (GPs) and healthcare delivery organizations necessitates a common language. The presentation of the 4 types of GP’s activities, opens dialogue but can lead to possible misunderstandings between the micro- and macro-level of the healthcare system. This commentary takes 4 examples: costs reduction by P4, priority of beneficence or nonmaleficence, role ...

BACKGROUND Although many studies have analyzed health insurance worldwide, most focus on whole populations rather than specific vulnerable groups. There is a lack of studies that compare different schemes. This paper evaluates the impact of different types of social health insurance and other associated factors on healthcare utilization and costs among middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults. ...

QUESTION What are the costs and utilisation of healthcare resources, their determinants, and quality of life for people attending outpatient physiotherapy after ankle fracture? DESIGN Longitudinal observational study. PARTICIPANTS Ninety-four adults (2 dropouts) following cast removal after isolated ankle fracture attending outpatient physiotherapy at three hospitals in Sydney, Australia. ...

Background: Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is a serious adverse drug reaction associated with an increased length of hospital stay (LOS) and utilization of healthcare services and even more so if heparin-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (HITT) occurs. Objective: To determine the attributable healthcare cost and LOS of patients experiencing HIT compared with control subjects. Methods:...

OBJECTIVES The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity worldwide continues to compromise population health and creates a wider societal cost in terms of productivity loss and premature mortality. Despite extensive international literature on the cost of overweight and obesity, findings are inconsistent between Europe and the USA, and particularly within Europe. Studies vary on issues of...

Hypnotics (sleeping pills) are prescribed widely, but the economic costs of the harm they have caused have been largely unrecognized. Randomized clinical trials have proven that hypnotics increase the incidence of infections. Likewise, hypnotics increase the incidence of major depression and cause emergency admissions for overdoses and deaths.  Epidemiologically, hypnotic use is associated with...

BACKGROUND Complications increase treatment costs of diabetes mellitus (DM). An adequate metabolic control of the disease could reduce these costs. AIM To evaluate the costs of medical care for a cohort of patients with DM, according to their degree of metabolic compensation. MATERIAL AND METHODS All diabetic patients attended in a regional hospital from 2005 to 2010 were analyzed. A correl...

OBJECTIVE Although obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is not a life-threatening disease, very few studies have compared differences in healthcare service utilization between patients with and those without OSA in an Asian population according to different age groups. This study attempted to investigate differences in healthcare service utilization between patients with and those without OSA in diffe...

Abstract Literature and original analysis of healthcare costs have shown that a small proportion of patients consume the majority of healthcare resources. A proactive approach is to target interventions towards those patients who are at risk of becoming high-cost users (HCUs). This approach requires identifying high-risk patients accurately before substantial avoidable costs have been incurred ...

Cost-containment in healthcare spending has become a central issue in public policy and healthcare reform, especially as the affordable care act adds millions of people to public and private insurance rolls. In this climate, longstanding criticism of pharmaceutical pricing has grown sharper, and many in both policy and medicine have characterized the costs of newly developed drugs as both exorb...