ArticleBMJ open2022
Correlation between the ratio of physician consultation fees to hourly minimum wage and consultation length: a cross-sectional study of nine countries.
Article in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Physician Consultation Time and Perceived Quality of Outpatient Care for New Cancer Patients in Korea: An Experimental Vignette Survey of the General Public and Physicians.Journal of Korean medical science · 2026Article
- The Potentially Overlooked Dangers: Prevalence and Clinical Relevance of Incidental Extraspinal Findings on Cervical Spine Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Retrospective Analysis of 2,286 Cases.Clinics in orthopedic surgery · 2026Article
- Psychotropic Drug Use in Korean Patients With Osteoarthritis.Journal of Korean medical science · 2025Article
- The Impact of Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease Exclusion Waivers on the Availability of Substance Abuse Treatment Services and the Varying Effect by Ownership Type.The Milbank quarterly · 2024Article
- Economic Evaluation of Remote Monitoring for Implantable Cardiac Devices: Evidence from a Remote-Care Study.ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR · 2024Article
- Temporal Change in the Use of Laboratory and Imaging Tests in One Week Before Death, 2006-2015.Journal of Korean medical science · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesCurrent healthcare reimbursement system is criticised for not adequately compensating physicians' cognitive services. This study was performed to examine primary care physicians' consultation fees in nine countries, relative to the national hourly minimum wage and to examine the correlations of the physician consultation fee with consultation length and other healthcare indices. DESIGN AND OUTCOME MEASURES: Nine reference countries for which healthcare statistics are publicly available and outpatient consultation is compensated by fee-for-service payment were selected. A representative consultation fee was chosen to calculate the ratio of the consultation fee to the hourly minimum wage. The primary outcome was the correlation between the consultation fee/hourly minimum wage ratio and consultation length. In addition, the consultation fees were compared with fees for haemoglobin A1c tests and brain imaging. Pearson's method was primarily used for correlation analysis.
resultsThe mean representative consultation fee/hourly minimum wage ratio was 4.02 (median, 2.7; range, 0.80-10.36). The mean consultation length was 12.9 min (median, 14.7 min; range, 5-21.1 min). A significant correlation (r=0.79) was found between consultation length and the consultation fee/hourly minimum wage ratio. The ratio of consultation fee to hourly minimum wage was moderately negatively correlated with the annual number of physician visits, number of consultations per doctor and length of hospital stay. The brain CT fee/consultation fee ratio was moderately positively correlated with the number of CT units per 1 million population. In Japan and Korea, where the brain CT/consultation fee ratio was highest, the number of CT examinations per population was also highest.
conclusionsThe relationship of consultation fees to each country's hourly minimum wage varied in nine reference countries; however, it was strongly correlated with consultation length. The imbalance in compensation for cognitive services might drive increased use of imaging tests in some countries.
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