Recent Findings from Federal University Has Provided New Information about Health Insurance (Utilization of basic health units of FHS according to…

Recent Findings from Federal University Has Provided New Information about Health Insurance (Utilization of basic health units of FHS according to private health insurance)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Current study results on Health Insurance have been published. According to news reporting originating from Pelotas, Brazil, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "To describe the utilization of basic health units according to coverage by discount card or private health insurance. Household survey in the area covered by Family Health Strategy in Pelotas, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from December 2007 to February 2008, with persons of all age groups."

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Federal University, "The frequency of (medical or non-medical) healthcare seeking at the basic health units in the last six months and the prevalence of basic health unit utilization for the last medical consultation (in case it had been performed up to six months before, for a non-routine reason) were analyzed by Poisson regression adjusted for the sampling design. Of the 1,423 persons, 75.6% had no discount card or private health insurance. The average frequency of (medical or non-medical) healthcare seeking was 1.6 times in six months (95%CI 1.3-2.0); this frequency was 55.8% lower (p < 0.001) among privately insured persons compared to those with no discount card or private health insurance. Among the last medical consultations, 35.8% (95%CI 25.4-47.7) had been performed at the basic health units; this prevalence was 36.4% lower (p = 0.003) among persons covered by discount card and 87.7% lower (p = 0.007) among privately insured persons compared to those without both coverages. Private health insurance and, to a lesser degree, discount card coverage, are related to lower utilization of basic health units."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "This can be used to size the population under the accountability of each Family Health Strategy team, to the extent that community health workers are able to differentiate discount card from PHI during family registration."

For more information on this research see: Utilization of basic health units of FHS according to private health insurance. Revista De Saude Publica, 2018;52():1-9. Revista De Saude Publica can be contacted at: Revista De Saude Publica, Faculdade Saude Publ Da Usp, Av Dr Arnaldo 715, 01246-904SP Sao Paulo, Brazil (see also Health Insurance).

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting L.F. Fontenelle, Univ Fed Pelotas, Fac Med, Programa Posgrad Epidemiol, Pelotas, RS, Brazil. Additional authors for this research include M.B.J. de Camargo, A.D. Bertoldi, H. Goncalves, E.L.N. Maciel and A.J.D. Barros.

Keywords for this news article include: Pelotas, Brazil, South America, Health and Medicine, Health Insurance, Federal University.

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