Do patients bypass primary care for common health problems under a free-access system? Experience of Taiwan.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A common challenge for free-access systems is that people may bypass primary care and seek secondary care through self-referral. Taiwan's government has undertaken various initiatives to mitigate bypass; however, little is known about whether the bypass trend has decreased over time. This study examined the extent to which patients bypass primary care for treatment of common diseases and factors associated with bypass under Taiwan's free-access system.

Methods

This repeated cross-sectional study analyzed data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. A random sample of 1 million enrollees was drawn repeatedly from the insured population during 2000-2017. To capture visits beyond the community level, the bypass rate was defined as the proportion of

SUBMITTER: Liang LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7677770 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature