ArticleBMC health services research2022
Co-payments and equity in care: enhancing hospitalisation policy for Palestine refugees in Lebanon.
Article in BMC health services research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
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
Abstract
backgroundThis paper measures the impact of introducing a 10% co-payment on secondary care hospitalization costs for Palestine refugees living in Lebanon (PRL) in all UNRWA contracted hospitals, except for the Red Crescent Society. This ex-post analysis provides a detailed insight on the direction and magnitude of the policy impact in terms of demand by hospital type, average length of stay and treatment costs.
methodsWith a complete population episode level dataset, we use multinomial logit, negative binomial, and linear models to estimate impacts on the different dependent variables, controlling for disease, patient and hospital characteristics.
resultsAfter the implementation patients were at least 4 pp (p <0.01) more likely to choose a Red Crescent Society hospital for secondary care, instead of one with co-payment. Average length of stay was not affected in general, despite the increase in control at all UNRWA contracted hospitals. Except for the decrease in UNRWA contribution, did not find a statistically significant impact of the co-payment on costs, nor for the provider or for the patient. Findings suggest that introducing a 10% co-payment for secondary hospital care had an impact on patients' health care budget, leading to demand shifts towards cheaper options - i.e., patients had to chose care based on financial constraints rather than on their treatment preferences.
conclusionBefore changing healthcare payment schemes in different types of hospitals, facilities offering free of charge treatment should be assessed and prepared for potential demand shifts to avoid overcapacity and the collapse of health care services for such a fragile population. In addition, exemptions from co-payments should be considered for patients with severe health conditions and financial constraints, who, according to our results, are the most likely to change their pattern of care due to an increase in treatment costs.
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.