background measures taken over the past four years in greece to reduce pharmaceutical expenditure have led to significant price reductions for medicines, but have also changed patient cost-sharing rates for prescription drugs. this study attempts to capture the resulting increase in patients’ out-of-pocket (oop) expenses for prescription drugs during the 2011-2014 period.   methods the authors ...

conclusions considering iran’s economic condition during the last five years, the catastrophic health expenditure headcount ratio was more than 2% in iran. materials and methods this descriptive study on iranian rural and urban households was conducted from april to june 2015. the sample sizes were 19437 rural and 18888 urban households that iranian statistical centre (isc) selected them throug...

OBJECTIVES To determine the mean, median and 10th and 90th percentile levels of fees and out-of-pocket costs to the patient for an initial consultation with a consultant physician; to determine any differences in fees and bulk-billing rates between specialties and between states and territories. DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING Analysis of 2015 Medicare claims data for an initial outpatient a...

A fter rapid government payment increases in the midto late 1990s, Medicare+Choice plans now face sharply reduced annual increases in government payments for basic Medicare benefits (Gold 2001a). In response, Medicare+Choice plans are cutting back on supplemental benefits and raising premiums (Gold and Achman 2001; Achman and Gold 2002a, 2002c).These changes have increased outof-pocket spending...

BACKGROUND The burden of chronic conditions is on the rise in India, necessitating long-term support from healthcare services. Healthcare, in India, is primarily financed through out-of-pocket payments by households. Considering scarce evidence available from India, our study investigates whether and how out-of-pocket payments for outpatient care affect individuals with chronic conditions. ME...

Background: The cost-effective strategies are of paramount importance in the improvement of neonatal health services. Regarding this, the present study aimed to evaluate the health sector reform of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its impact on hospital costs related to the admission of neonates in Amirkola Children's Hospital.Methods: This observational analytic study was conducted in 2015 to ...

Editorials 850 Disease outbreaks and catastrophes can affect countries at any time, causing substantial human suffering and deaths and economic losses. If health systems are ill-equipped to deal with such situations , the affected populations can be very vulnerable. 1 The current Ebola virus disease outbreak in western Africa highlights how an epidemic can proliferate rapidly and pose huge prob...