New Findings from Sungkyunkwan University in Health Insurance Provides New Insights (Projection of future pharmacy service fees using the dispensing…

Managed Care Weekly Digest

New Findings from Sungkyunkwan University in Health Insurance Provides New Insights (Projection of future pharmacy service fees using the dispensing claims in hospital and clinic outpatient pharmacies: national health insurance database between ...)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Research findings on Health Insurance are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating in Suwon, South Korea, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "Predicting pharmacy service fees is crucial to sustain the health insurance budget and maintain pharmacy management. However, there is no evidence on how to predict pharmacy service fees at the population level."

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Sungkyunkwan University, "This study compares the status of pharmacy services and constructs regression model to project annual pharmacy service fees in Korea. We conducted a time-series analysis by using sample data from the national health insurance database from 2006 and 2012. To reflect the latest trend, we categorized pharmacies into general hospital, special hospital, and clinic outpatient pharmacies based on the major source of service fees, using a 1% sample of the 2012 data. We estimated the daily number of prescriptions, pharmacy service fees, and drugs costs according to these three types of pharmacy services. To forecast pharmacy service fees, a regression model was constructed to estimate annual fees in the following year (2013). The dependent variable was pharmacy service fees and the independent variables were the number of prescriptions and service fees per pharmacy, ratio of patients (>= 65 years), conversion factor, change of policy, and types of pharmacy services. Among the 21,283 pharmacies identified, 5.0% (1064), 4.6% (974), and 77.5% (16,340) were general hospital, special hospital, and clinic outpatient pharmacies, respectively, in 2012. General hospital pharmacies showed a higher daily number of prescriptions (111.9), higher pharmacy service fees ($25,546,342), and higher annual drugs costs ($215,728,000) per pharmacy than any other pharmacy (p < 0.05). The regression model to project found the ratio of patients aged 65 years and older and the conversion factor to be associated with an increase in pharmacy service fees. It also estimated the future rate of increase in pharmacy service fees to be between 3.1% and 7.8%. General hospital outpatient pharmacies spent more on annual pharmacy service fees than any other type of pharmacy."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "The forecast of annual pharmacy service fees in Korea was similar to that of Australia, but not that of the United Kingdom."

For more information on this research see: Projection of future pharmacy service fees using the dispensing claims in hospital and clinic outpatient pharmacies: national health insurance database between 2006 and 2012. BMC Health Services Research, 2018;18():49-55. BMC Health Services Research can be contacted at: Biomed Central Ltd, 236 Grays Inn Rd, Floor 6, London WC1X 8HL, England. (BioMed Central - www.biomedcentral.com/; BMC Health Services Research - www.biomedcentral.com/bmchealthservres/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting E.K. Lee, Sungkyunkwan UniversitySch Pharm, Suwon 16419, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include I. Song, D. Ha and J.Y. Shin (see also Health Insurance).

Keywords for this news article include: Suwon, South Korea, Asia, Information Technology, Insurance Companies, Health and Medicine, Health Insurance, Hospitals, Sungkyunkwan University.