ArticleHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2021
The Impact of China's Zero Markup Drug Policy on Hospitalization Expenses for Inpatients in Tertiary Public Hospitals: Evidence Based on Quantile Difference-in-Difference Models.
Article in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 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
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trends and determinants of hospitalization costs for umbilical hernia: a 13-year retrospective analysis from 2012 to 2024.Frontiers in surgery · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Zero-Markup Drug Policy's Effects on Financial Burden and Pharmaceutical Channel Migration: A Structural Variation and Interrupted Time Series Analysis from Hubei, China.Journal of healthcare leadership · 2026Article
- Can health poverty alleviation policies simultaneously mitigate current and future medical-related poverty? Evidence from four waves (2011-2018) of the China health and retirement longitudinal study (CHARLS).Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- The universal zero markup drug policy and gastric cancer hospitalization expenses: an analysis of trends and influencing factors in Shanghai from 2014 to 2021.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Impact of zero-markup consumable policy and national procurement of orthopedic spinal devices in China: a mixed-methods study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Inpatient burden of lung cancer and changes after a hospital performance reform: a real-world study.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Impact of Medical-Pharmaceutical Separation Reform on Hospitalization Expenditure in Tertiary Public Hospitals: Difference-in-Difference Analysis Based on Panel Data from Beijing.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2024Article
- Effects of transparent online open procurement on prices, volumes, and costs of medicines: an interrupted time series study in Ningxia, China.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- Differential effect of China's Zero Markup Drug Policy on provider-induced demand in secondary and tertiary hospitals.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- The impact of zero markup drug policy on patients' healthcare utilization and expense: An interrupted time series study.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Did the universal zero-markup drug policy lower healthcare expenditures? Evidence from Changde, China.BMC health services research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of the Zero Markup drug (ZMD) policy on hospitalization expenses for inpatients in tertiary Chinese hospitals.
methodsUsing the administrative data from hospital electronic health records (EHRs) between 2015 and 2017, we implemented the quantile difference-in-differences (QDID) estimators to evaluate the impact of the ZMD policy on hospitalization expenses while controlling for patient-level and hospital-level characteristics.
resultsAccording to the QDID models, the introduction of ZMD policy significantly induced lower drug costs for all inpatients especially at the 50th (-USD 507.84 (SE = USD 90.91), 75th (-USD 844.77 (SE = USD 149.70), and 90th (-USD 1400.00 (SE = USD 209.97)) percentiles of the overall distributions. However, the total hospitalization, diagnostic, treatment, material and services expenses for inpatients were significantly higher for the treated group than the control group. This tendency was more pronounced for inpatients in tertiary hospitals with lower expenses (in the 10th, 25th and 50th percentiles).
conclusionThe implementation of ZMD policy alone may not be enough to change the medical service providers' profit-driven behavior. The targeted supervision of hospital costs by the Chinese health administration department should be strengthened to avoid unreasonable hospital charges.
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.