Impacts of unifying urban and rural residents' medical insurance on the hospitalisation expenses of rural patients in eastern China: an interrupted time series analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

This study evaluated the impact of the Urban and Rural Residents' Basic Medical Insurance scheme on hospitalisation expenses of rural patients in eastern China, which unified separate healthcare systems for urban and rural residents.

Design

Monthly hospitalisation data from municipal and county hospitals were collected from the local Medicare Fund Database, covering the period from January 2018 to December 2021. The unification of insurance between urban and rural patients was implemented at different times for county and municipal hospitals. An interrupted time series analysis was used to assess the immediate and gradual effects of the integrated policy on the total medical expenses, out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses and effective reimbursement rate (ERR) among rural

SUBMITTER: Qin Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10230915 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature