Rising co-payments coincide with unwanted effects on continuity of healthcare for patients with schizophrenia in the Netherlands.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Co-payments, used to control rising costs of healthcare, may lead to disruption of appropriate outpatient care and to increases in acute crisis treatment or hospital admission in patients with schizophrenia. An abrupt rise in co-payments in 2012 in the Netherlands offered a natural experiment to study the effects of co-payments on continuity of healthcare in schizophrenia.

Methods

Retrospective longitudinal registry-based cohort study. Outcome measures were (i) continuity of elective (planned) psychiatric care (outpatient care and/or antipsychotic medication); (ii) acute psychiatric care (crisis treatment and hospital admission); and (iii) somatic care per quarter of the years 2009-2014.

Results

10 911 patients with schizophrenia were included. During the s

SUBMITTER: van der Lee APM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6742391 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature