Data on Healthcare Economics Reported by Saad Zbiri and Colleagues (Supplementary private health insurance: The impact of physician financial incentives on medical practice): Economics – Healthcare Economics

2021 OCT 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Economics - Healthcare Economics is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating in Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “In the French diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based payment system, both private and public hospitals are financed by a public single payer. Public hospitals are overcrowded and have no direct financial incentives to choose one procedure over another.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research, “If a patient has a strong preference, they can switch to a private hospital. In private hospitals, the preference does come into play, but the patient has to pay for the additional cost, for which they are reimbursed if they have supplementary private health insurance. Do financial incentives from the fees received by physicians for different procedures drive their behavior? Using French exhaustive data on delivery, we find that private hospitals perform significantly more cesarean deliveries than public hospitals. However, for patients without private health insurance, the two sectors differ much less in terms of cesareans rate. We determine the impact of the financial incentive for patients who can afford the additional cost. Affordability is mainly ensured by the reimbursement of costs by private health insurance.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “These findings can be interpreted as evidence that, in healthcare systems where a public single payer offers universal coverage, the presence of supplementary private insurance can contribute to creating incentives on the supply side and lead to practices and an allocation of resources that are not optimal from a social welfare perspective.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Supplementary private health insurance: The impact of physician financial incentives on medical practice. Health Economics, 2021. Health Economics can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Health Economics - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1050)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Saad Zbiri, EA 7285, Versailles Saint Quentin University, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4443. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

The publisher of the journal Health Economics can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

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