ArticleBMC health services research2012
Free choice of healthcare providers in the Netherlands is both a goal in itself and a precondition: modelling the policy assumptions underlying the promotion of patient choice through documentary analysis and interviews.
Article in BMC health services research, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Fragmentation in health system financing: a major challenge for improving effectiveness, efficiency, equity and choice within health systems.BMJ public health · 2026Review
- How do citizens with low health insurance literacy choose a health insurance policy in the Netherlands? An interview study.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Exploratory analysis of factors influencing hospital preferences among the Lebanese population: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2024Article
- What do Iranians value most when choosing a hospital? Evidence from a discrete choice experiment.PloS one · 2024Article
- Preferences of Patients With Musculoskeletal Disorders Regarding the Timing and Channel of eHealth and Factors Influencing Its Use: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR human factors · 2023Article
- Predicting the Travel Distance of Patients to Access Healthcare Using Deep Neural Networks.IEEE journal of translational engineering in health and medicine · 2022Article
- Perspective of potential patients on the hospital volume-outcome relationship and the minimum volume threshold for total knee arthroplasty: a qualitative focus group and interview study.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Provider-Related Predictors of Utilization of University Health Services in Nigeria.Ethiopian journal of health sciences · 2019Article
- Modelling competition in health care markets as a complex adaptive system: an agent-based framework.Health systems (Basingstoke, England) · 2019Article
- An assessment of the Dutch experience with health insurers acting as healthcare advisors.PloS one · 2019Article
- Hospital choice in Germany from the patient's perspective: a cross-sectional study.BMC health services research · 2017Observational
- Patients' Need for Tailored Comparative Health Care Information: A Qualitative Study on Choosing a Hospital.Journal of medical Internet research · 2016Article
- Comparison Quality of Health Services between Public and Private Providers: The Iranian People's Perspective.Electronic physician · 2016Article
- Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2016Article
- Patients' perspectives on the role of their complaints in the regulatory process.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2016Article
- What Influences Patients' Decisions When Choosing a Health Care Provider? Measuring Preferences of Patients with Knee Arthrosis, Chronic Depression, or Alzheimer's Disease, Using Discrete Choice Experiments.Health services research · 2015Article
- The public's voice about healthcare quality regulation policies. A population-based survey.BMC health services research · 2015Article
- Are patients' preferences regarding the place of treatment heard and addressed at the point of referral: an exploratory study based on observations of GP-patient consultations.BMC family practice · 2013Article
- Do patients choose community health services (CHS) for first treatment in China? Results from a community health survey in urban areas.Journal of community health · 2013Article
- Determinants of patient choice of healthcare providers: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn the Netherlands in 2006, a health insurance system reform took place in which regulated competition between insurers and providers is key. In this context, the government placed greater emphasis on patients being able to choose health insurers and providers as a precondition for competition. Patient choice became an instrument instead of solely a goal in itself. In the current study, we investigated the concept of 'patient choice' of healthcare providers, as postulated in the supporting documentation for this reform, because we wanted to try to understand the assumptions policy makers had regarding patient choice of healthcare providers.
methodsWe searched policy documents for assumptions made by policy makers about patient choice of healthcare providers that underlie the health insurance system reform. Additionally, we held interviews with people who were involved in or closely followed the reform.
resultsOur study shows that the government paid much more attention to the instrumental goal of patient choice. Patients are assumed to be able to choose a provider rationally if a number of conditions are satisfied, e.g. the availability of enough comparative information. To help ensure those conditions were met, the Dutch government and other parties implemented a variety of supporting instruments.
conclusionsVarious instruments have been put in place to ensure that patients can act as consumers on the healthcare market. Much less attention has been paid to the willingness and ability of patients to choose, i.e. choice as a value. There was also relatively little attention paid to the consequences on equity of outcomes if some patient groups are less inclined or able to choose actively.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.