Outpatient-shopping behavior and survival rates in newly diagnosed cancer patients.

Objectives: To evaluate the appropriateness of the definition of outpatient-shopping behavior in Taiwanese patients.

Study Design: Linked study of 3 databases (Taiwan Cancer Registry, National Health Insurance [NHI] claim database, and death registry database).

Methods: Outpatient shopping behavior was defined as making at least 4 or 5 physician visits to confirm a cancer diagnosis.

Online detection of potential duplicate medications and changes of physician behavior for outpatients visiting multiple hospitals using national health insurance smart cards in Taiwan.

Objectives: Doctor shopping (or hospital shopping), which means changing doctors (or hospitals) without professional referral for the same or similar illness conditions, is common in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. Due to the lack of infrastructure for sharing health information and medication history among hospitals, doctor-shopping patients are more likely to receive duplicate medications and suffer adverse drug reactions. The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) adopted smart cards (or NHI-IC cards) as health cards in Taiwan.

Impacts of cost containment strategies on pharmaceutical expenditures of the National Health Insurance in Taiwan, 1996-2003.

Introduction: Pharmaceutical expenditure (PE) of the National Health Insurance (NHI) programme in Taiwan grew from 62.2 billion Taiwan new dollars (NT dollars) in 1996 to NT94.5 dollars billion in 2003.