Changes in the prescription pattern of antipsychotics for schizophrenic outpatients after the implementation of a global budgeting program.

Background: A hospital-based global budget (GB) program was implemented by the Taiwan Bureau of National Health Insurance (TBNHI) to control the rising costs of medical care. We investigated whether the introduction of the GB program affected prescriptions for second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) for schizophrenic outpatients in public and private medical and psychiatric centers.

Methods: The prescription data of schizophrenic outpatients treated between 2001 and 2004 were retrieved from the TBNHI database, which included outpatients who were diagnosed as having schizophrenia during the period from 1996 to 2001.

Assessing the effects of drug price reduction policies on older people in Taiwan.

This study investigates the initial effects of the government's prescription drug price reduction policies on outpatient hypertension treatment for the elderly in Taiwan. The National Health Insurance scheme has taken a number of steps in recent years to reduce drug prices. The data used in the study comprises the medical records of approximately 137,000 hypertension patients aged 65 and above.

Changes in prescribing behaviors after implementing drug reimbursement rate reduction policy in Taiwan: implications for the medicare system.

Prescription drug costs are the fastest rising component of health care spending worldwide. To control drug costs, the Bureau of the National Health Insurance in Taiwan has taken a series of actions over the years to reduce drug reimbursement rates. The purpose of this study is to investigate changes in physicians' prescribing behaviors after initial implementation of drug reimbursement rate reduction policy in Taiwan.

Does capitated contracting improve efficiency? Evidence from California hospitals.

This study examines the effect of capitated contracting on hospital efficiency to better understand strategies related to the recent financial crisis in the California health care market. Our findings indicate that less efficient hospitals are more likely to participate in capitated contracting. As a result, hospitals with capitated contracts are, on average, less efficient than hospitals without capitated contracts.

Changes in drug utilization following the outpatient prescription drug cost-sharing program--evidence from Taiwan's elderly.

This paper examines changes in drug utilization following Taiwan's newly implemented National Health Insurance (NHI) outpatient prescription drug cost-sharing program for persons over 65 years old. The study is a hospital outpatient prescription level analysis that adopts a pretest-posttest control group experiment design. Selected measures of outpatient prescription drug utilization are examined for cost-sharing and non cost-sharing groups in cost-sharing periods and pre cost-sharing periods.

Assessing the effect of Taiwan's outpatient prescription drug copayment policy in the elderly.

Objectives: This study uses variance cost analysis and regression analysis as tools for investigating the initial effects of Taiwan's outpatient prescription drug copayment program in the elderly. Under its new National Health Insurance program, Taiwan implemented a prescription drug cost-sharing program August 1, 1999. We compare an elderly population's prescription drug use after the policy was implemented with an elderly population's prescription drug use before the policy change to describe initial and general consequences of the drug cost-sharing program.

The initial effects of Physician Compensation Programs in Taiwan hospitals: implications for staff model HMOs.

This paper examines whether a Physician Compensation Program (PCP), which was based on the responsibility centers system, improved departmental efficiency in a large Taiwan teaching hospital. PCPs in Taiwan may have implications for staff-model HMOs. Monthly financial data and related information for 58 departments in the 5 months following the introduction of the program (the PCP period) and the corresponding 5 months before the introduction of the program (the pre-PCP period) were provided by the case hospital.

Does the implementation of responsibility centers, total quality management, and physician fee programs improve hospital efficiency? Evidence from Taiwan hospitals.

Objectives: This study evaluates whether the implementation of various types of hospital-physician integration strategies, such as the responsibility centers system, total quality management, and physician fee programs, enhance efficiency for Taiwan hospitals. Because hospitals in Taiwan are structurally similar to staff-model HMOs, the study has implications beyond Taiwan.

Research Design: The Data Envelopment Analysis model is applied to measure hospital efficiency.