Antidiabetic Medication Utilisation before and during Pregnancy in Switzerland between 2012 and 2019: An Administrative Claim Database from the MAMA Cohort.

Background: The incidence of diabetes mellitus (both pregestational and gestational) is increasing worldwide, and hyperglycemia during pregnancy is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Evidence on the safety and efficacy of metformin during pregnancy has accumulated resulting in an increase in its prescription in many reports.

Aims: We aimed to determine the prevalence of antidiabetic drug use (insulins and blood glucose-lowering drugs) before and during pregnancy in Switzerland and the changes therein during pregnancy and over time.

Colorectal cancer testing rates after implementation of an organised screening programme in Vaud, Switzerland.

Aims Of The Study: Canton Vaud, Switzerland, implemented an organised colorectal cancer  screening programme with colonoscopy and faecal occult blood tests in 2015, 4 to 6 years ahead of neighbouring cantons. Before its implementation, nearly half of Swiss citizens were already up to date with screening, primarily from opportunistic colonoscopies. We hypothesised that earlier implementation of an organised programme would be associated with greater increases in colorectal cancer testing rates.

Change in colorectal cancer (CRC) testing rates associated with the introduction of the first organized screening program in canton Uri, Switzerland: Evidence from insurance claims data analyses from 2010 to 2018.

The first canton in Switzerland to implement an organized colorectal cancer screening program (OSP) was Uri. Starting in 2013, it offered 50-69-year-olds free testing with colonoscopy every 10 years or fecal occult blood test (FOBT) every 2 years. We tested the association between the OSP and testing rates over time.

Improving risk-equalization in Switzerland: Effects of alternative reform proposals on reallocating public subsidies for hospitals.

The Swiss healthcare financing system is on the verge of one of its largest reforms. The Swiss parliament is currently debating how to reallocate about 20 % of total health expenditures. Swiss cantons make substantial tax-funded contributions to health expenditures by paying 55 % of hospital inpatient costs.

Financial incentives and physician prescription behavior: Evidence from dispensing regulations.

In many health care markets, physicians can respond to changes in reimbursement schemes by changing the volume (volume response) and the composition of services provided (substitution response). We examine the relative importance of these two behavioral responses in the context of physician drug dispensing in Switzerland. We find that dispensing increases drug costs by 52% for general practitioners and 56% for specialists.

Consumer price sensitivity and health plan choice in a regulated competition setting.

We estimate premium elasticities in a regulated competition market based on a quasi-exogenous premium increase for young adults in Switzerland. We exploit that individuals born before the turn of the year ("treatment group") face a larger increase in premiums than individuals born after the turn of the year ("control group"). We find that the treatment group is 1.

Unobserved health care expenditures: How important is censoring in register data?

Accurate information on individuals' health service use is important for evaluating health policies and analyzing health care demand. Although register data are considered to be more reliable than survey data, little is known about the extent and effect of censoring of the expenditure distribution in register data. We exploit a recent change in the health provider remuneration system in several Swiss cantons to empirically investigate whether censoring occurs when individuals do not have to disclose their health service use below their deductible level.

Re-insurance in the Swiss health insurance market: Fit, power, and balance.

Risk equalization mechanisms mitigate insurers' incentives to practice risk selection. On the other hand, incentives to limit healthcare spending can be distorted by risk equalization, particularly when risk equalization payments depend on realized costs instead of expected costs. In addition, cost based risk equalization mechanisms may incentivize health insurers to distort the allocation of resources among different services.