Cost-Sharing Increase, Medication Adherence, and Hospitalizations in Schizophrenia Patients: A Natural Experiment.

ABSTRACT: Increases in medication cost-sharing rates remain a controversial system-wide cost-containment measure for chronic mental health patients. The objective was to investigate the effects of cost-sharing increases on adherence to prescribed antipsychotic medication and psychiatric hospitalizations among patients with schizophrenia. In July 2012, a Spanish National Law raised the cost-sharing rate from 0 to 10% for pensioner outpatient medication while cost-sharing remained at 0% for other socioeconomic groups. To estimate the effects of the reform, we analyzed the prevalent adult schizophrenic population of Valencia, Spain, followed up 1 year before and after the Law took effect. We used a quasi-experimental design with a patient fixed-effects difference-in-differences regression to evaluate t

SUBMITTER: Serra-Burriel M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9291803 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature