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The purpose of this research was to understand cost containment strategies used by private hospitals under managed care plans and their relationship to quality of care within the South African environment. The data was collected using a questionnaire consisting of closed questions requesting respondents to rate statements about costs and quality of care, as well as open questions for additional information about costs and quality of care. The study found that managed care has the ability to control costs and that hospitals monitor LOS and prescribe generic medication in order to control costs. The study also found that cost control strategies have a negative impact on quality of care and that hospitals place more emphasis on cost control than quality of care. In addition, large hospitals that enjoy high occupancy rates experienced an increase in patient complaints since the introduction of managed care, compared to small and medium hospitals. The study found that managed care has had a better than average impact on controlling costs and a better than average impact in quality reduction, however the correlation between cost control and quality reduction was negative. Finally, the study found that technology has an impact on rising healthcare costs and that any constraints placed on rising costs associated with technology will have a negative impact on quality of care. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

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Despite generous universal social health insurance with little formal restrictions of outpatient utilisation, Austria exhibits high rates of avoidable hospitalisations, which indicate the inefficient provision of primary healthcare and might be a consequence of the strict regulatory split between the Austrian inpatient and outpatient sector. This paper exploits the considerable regional variations in acute and chronic avoidable hospitalisations in Austria to investigate whether those inefficiencies in primary care are rather related to regional healthcare supply or to population characteristics. To explicitly account for inter-regional dependencies, spatial panel data methods are applied to a comprehensive administrative dataset of all hospitalisations from 2008 to 2013 in the 117 Austrian districts. The initial selection of relevant covariates is based on Bayesian model averaging. The results of the analysis show that supply-side variables, such as the number of general practitioners, are significantly associated with decreased chronic and acute avoidable hospitalisations, whereas characteristics of the regional population, such as the share of population with university education or long-term unemployed, are less relevant. Furthermore, the spatial error term indicates that there are significant spatial dependencies between unobserved characteristics, such as practice style or patients' utilization behaviour. Not accounting for those would result in omitted variable bias.

This dissertation is composed of two essays that examine the role of public and private health insurance on healthcare access, use, and cost containment. In Chapter 1, Dugan, Virani, and Ho examine the impact of Medicare eligibility on healthcare utilization and access. Although Medicare eligibility has been shown to generally increase health care utilization, few studies have examined these relationships among the chronically ill. We use a regression-discontinuity framework to compare physician utilization and financial access to care among people before and after the Medicare eligibility threshold at age 65. Specifically, we focus on coronary heart disease and stroke (CHDS) patients. We find that Medicare eligibility improves health care access and physician utilization for many adults with CHDS, but it may not promote appropriate levels of physician use among blacks with CHDS. My second chapter examines the extent to which the managed care backlash affected managed care's ability to contain hospital costs among short-term, non-federal hospitals between 1998 and 2008. My analysis focuses on health maintenance organizations (HMOs), the most aggressive managed care model. Unlike previous studies that use cross-sectional or fixed effects estimators to address the endogeneity of HMO penetration with respect to hospital costs, this study uses a fixed effects instrumental variable approach. The results suggest two conclusions. First, I find the impact of increased HMO penetration on costs declined over the study period, suggesting regulation adversely impacted managed care's ability to contain hospital costs. Second, when costs are decomposed into unit costs by hospital service, I find the impact of increased HMO penetration on inpatient costs reversed over the study period, but HMOs were still effective at containing outpatient costs.

Principe cardinal du droit de la santé, le consentement est traditionnellement étudié sous le prisme unique de la relation binaire : praticien - patient. Pourtant, bien qu'il doive être recueilli dans le cadre de ce colloque singulier, le consentement est la résultante d'une interaction réciproque entre trois liens liant le patient, le praticien et le financeur public. En effet, à l'instar de l'adage "Idem est non esse aut non probari", le consentement ne serait rien, s'il ne pouvait être effectif. C'est bien la reconnaissance du droit à la santé, impliquant un droit universel aux prestations sociales, qui lui permet d'être favorisé. Mais, financée par la solidarité et obligée par le principe d'équilibre budgétaire, l'assurance maladie se doit de maîtriser ses dépenses en agissant en financeur éclairé. Pour ce faire, elle participe à une politique d'infléchissement des comportements des patients en leur qualité d'assuré social. Tantôt favorisé, le consentement, expression individuelle de volonté, tend à être dépassé au profit d'un consentement social jugé responsable. Entre prévention et éducation, la responsabilisation a pour objectif d'accroître l'efficience de la prise en charge du risque maladie pour soi même, mais également pour la collectivité. Ainsi, le consentement, mode d'expression des droits et libertés fondant la disposition juridique corporelle, est plus que jamais celui du patient assuré social évoluant dans une démocratie sanitaire aux pourtours encore flous oscillant entre incitation et obligation et venant parfois s'achopper au principe de liberté de la vie privée. / A major principle of health law, assent is traditionally seen within the boundaries of the binaryrelationship “patient-medical practitioner”. However, assent results from the mutual interaction between patients, medical practitioners and the social security system. Indeed, as the saying notes "Idem est non esse aut non probari", the assent must be effective to really exist. It is promoted by the recognition of the “right to health care”, implying a universal right of social security benefits. However, being financed by solidarity and obliged to respect the constitutional principle of budgetary equilibrium, social insurance must contain its costs. This is why it partakes in a policy of modification of insured patients' behaviours. The assent, at times favoured as anindividual expression of will, tends to overtaken by a social assent, thought to be socially responsible. Between prevention and education, responsibilization aims at increasing efficiency of health care management. Thus, assent, expression of rights and liberties founded on the principle of “disposing of one's body”, is more than ever the insured patient's assent. This insured patient lives in a sanitary democracy which has hazy contours oscillating between incitation and healthcare obligation. These may struggle with the right to respect for private life.

The implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) has improved medical documentation in terms of accuracy, team communication, and ease of ordering tests and prescriptions; however, charting in an EHR strains the provider/patient relationship and contributes to physician burnout. Medical scribes are a promising potential solution to these problems. Our study aims to demonstrate that implementation of scribes into a medical residency program positively affects provider/patient satisfaction and improves quality and efficiency of EHR documentation. Our study evaluated the effectiveness and utility of scribes in a residency training program utilizing the established implementation framework “RE-AIM,” or Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation (quality), and Maintenance. During the study’s initial “Training Phase,” 11 first and second-year Family Medicine residents conducted scribe-facilitated patient visits. Patient and provider satisfaction ratings were collected, note quality was evaluated, and time to note closure was measured. During the subsequent “Choice Phase,” residents were given the option of whether to utilize scribes, and the same data measures were collected. Resident satisfaction ratings during the Training Phase showed an average score of 6.03 (on a 1-7 scale where “7” = “strongly agree” with positive statements), and a pilot sample of 9 patients showed an average patient satisfaction rating of 4.77 (on a 1-5 scale where “5” = “strongly agree” with positive statements). Scribe-facilitated notes coded for quality had an average score of 3.375 (on a 1-5 scale where 5 is “extremely” high quality). Finally, residents’ average time to note closure was decreased by more than 8 hours in scribe-facilitated visits. During the Choice Phase, all 11 participating residents requested scribe-facilitated visits, again with very high patient satisfaction scores (4.67 on a 1-5 scale) as well as high clinician satisfaction scores (6.06 on a 1-7 scale). Choice Phase note quality and note-closure time are currently being assessed. These results demonstrate that scribes improve clinician and patient satisfaction, as well as quality and efficiency of EHR documentation. Limitations include a small sample size of clinicians and patients. Further research is needed with larger sample sizes to determine whether scribes in a medical residency program represent a sustainable and effective intervention.

<p>This thesis consists of a summary and four papers. The first two concerns health care and sickness absence, and the last two pharmaceutical costs and prices.</p><p>Paper [I] presents an economic federation model which resembles the situation in, for example, Sweden. In the model the state governments provide health care, the fed-eral government provides a sickness benefit and both levels tax labor income. The re-sults show that the states can have either an incentive to under- or over-provide health care. The federal government can, by introducing an intergovernmental transfer, in-duce the state governments to provide the socially optimal amount of health care.</p><p>In Paper [II] the effect of aggregated public health care expenditure on absence from work due to sickness or disability was estimated. The analysis was based on data from a panel of the Swedish municipalities for the period 1993-2004. Public health care expenditure was found to have no statistically significant effect on absence and the standard errors were small enough to rule out all but a minimal effect. The result held when separate estimations were conducted for women and men, and for absence due to sickness and disability.</p><p>The purpose of Paper [III] was to study the effects of the introduction of fixed pharmaceutical budgets for two health centers in Västerbotten, Sweden. Estimation results using propensity score matching methods show that there are no systematic differences for either price or quantity per prescription between health centers using fixed and open-ended budgets. The analysis was based on individual prescription data from the two health centers and a control group both before and after the introduction of fixed budgets.</p><p>In Paper [IV] the introduction of the Swedish substitution reform in October 2002 was used as a natural experiment to examine the effects of increased consumer infor-mation on pharmaceutical prices. Using monthly data on individual pharmaceutical prices, the average reduction of prices due to the reform was estimated to four percent for both brand name and generic pharmaceuticals during the first four years after the reform. The results also show that the price adjustment was not instant.</p>

This thesis consists of a summary and four papers. The first two concerns health care and sickness absence, and the last two pharmaceutical costs and prices. Paper [I] presents an economic federation model which resembles the situation in, for example, Sweden. In the model the state governments provide health care, the fed-eral government provides a sickness benefit and both levels tax labor income. The re-sults show that the states can have either an incentive to under- or over-provide health care. The federal government can, by introducing an intergovernmental transfer, in-duce the state governments to provide the socially optimal amount of health care. In Paper [II] the effect of aggregated public health care expenditure on absence from work due to sickness or disability was estimated. The analysis was based on data from a panel of the Swedish municipalities for the period 1993-2004. Public health care expenditure was found to have no statistically significant effect on absence and the standard errors were small enough to rule out all but a minimal effect. The result held when separate estimations were conducted for women and men, and for absence due to sickness and disability. The purpose of Paper [III] was to study the effects of the introduction of fixed pharmaceutical budgets for two health centers in Västerbotten, Sweden. Estimation results using propensity score matching methods show that there are no systematic differences for either price or quantity per prescription between health centers using fixed and open-ended budgets. The analysis was based on individual prescription data from the two health centers and a control group both before and after the introduction of fixed budgets. In Paper [IV] the introduction of the Swedish substitution reform in October 2002 was used as a natural experiment to examine the effects of increased consumer infor-mation on pharmaceutical prices. Using monthly data on individual pharmaceutical prices, the average reduction of prices due to the reform was estimated to four percent for both brand name and generic pharmaceuticals during the first four years after the reform. The results also show that the price adjustment was not instant.

This study investigated the attitudes and perceptions of nurse managers regarding cost containment issues in selected public hospitals in the Port Elizabeth metropole of the Eastern Cape. Four hospitals participated in the study, and 211 nurse managers completed questionnaires. The results obtained from the participants&#8217; responses indicated that: &#10022; Nurse managers are ill-prepared for many responsibilities regarding cost containment, and need appropriate orientation and preparation both during their initial formal, and during their nurse management and in service training in order to fulfil their &#8220;financial&#8221; or cost containment role more effectively. &#10022; Nurse managers perceived the relationship between the productivity of staff and cost containment positively, but were reportedly unable to &#8226; prevent nurses from leaving their points of duty &#8226; curb the rate of absenteeism among nurses &#8226; reduce the number of resignations &#10022; Nurse managers suggested that more effective hospital cost containment efforts should ensure that &#8226; effective security checks are performed to curb losses of stock and equipment &#8226; more public telephones are installed in hospitals &#8226; stricter controls regarding wheelchairs are implemented The rationalisation of staff and services, as well as specialised equipment among the four public hospitals could enhance these hospitals&#8217; cost containment results. However, this would necessitate reorganising these hospitals&#8217; services at provincial level. The nurse managers required more knowledge about hospitals&#8217; financial management and cost containment issues. Guidelines for such a course were developed addressing: analysis of monthly variance reports; budgeting for manpower; balance statement; calculations for the supplies and expenses budget; income statements; the hospital&#8217;s budgetary cycle; break-even analysis; analysis of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis. / ADVANCED NURSING SCIENCES / D.Litt. et Phil.