ArticleCost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E2025
The effect of family physician program and health transformation plan on utilization and cost of health services.
Article in Cost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E, 2025. 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
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionHealth system reforms are essential. In Iran, some of the most significant changes include the implementation of the Family Physician Program (FPP) and the Health Transformation Plan (HTP). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of these programs on the cost and use of services.
methodsThis quasi-experiment targeted insured individuals under the Iranian Health Insurance Organization in Fars province from 2010 to 2021. ANOVA, T-tests, and interrupted time-series analysis were used to investigate the impacts of FPP and HTP on service utilization and cost changes before and after the introduction of these programs.
resultsFPP decreased specialist visits, drug utilization, and drug expenditure in the short run. But eventually, it resulted in more general practitioner (GP) consultations, laboratory services, and imaging, hospitalization, and drug spending. The HTP first resulted in more GP consultations, laboratory services, drug use, and hospitalization but less use of imaging services and more total service spending. Eventually, the HTP resulted in more GP consultations, fewer GP prescriptions, and less laboratory test and imaging service spending.
conclusionFPP was successful in achieving some initial goals, such as decreasing expenditure and service usage through a referral system. It was finally unsuccessful in the long run due to the dissolution of this system and lack of proper supervision. At the beginning, the HTP imposed significant costs to insurance providers; however, it ultimately led to a reduction in the cost for particular services over a prolonged interval.
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.