Researchers at Kerman University of Medical Sciences Have Published New Study Findings on Health and Medicine (Calculation of the Visit Costs of Various Services Provider Groups: Improvement of Payment Mechanisms)

2021 JUL 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on health and medicine. According to news originating from Kerman, Iran, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “Initiatives to improve the quality of health services and reduce costs currently have centered around payment mechanisms.”

The news editors obtained a quote from the research from Kerman University of Medical Sciences: “In Iran, like many other countries, the outpatient visit costs are paid via fee for service, while real-time visits and other details of provided services are not considered in the tariff setting process. This study attempted to calculate the visit costs of various service provider groups and compared them with tariffs. In this cross-sectional research, the essential data about different costs were collected from providerschr(‘39’) offices, standard time of each visit was achieved from Iranchr(‘39’)s Ministry of Health and Medical Education, current visit time of service providers was calculated based on health insurance companieschr(‘39’) data across the country. After calculating the standard and current visit costs through the activity-based costing technique, main determinants of costs (major cost centers) were specified for use in probably future weighted tariffs in fee for service payment mechanism. The greatest difference between standard and the current number of visits was found in the Sub-specialist physician group (6784 in a year), and the greatest difference was between standard and current cost of visits in sub-specialist psychiatrists (126703 IRR). Staffing and rental cost centers account for the highest share of total visit cost (87 %).”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This study demonstrated a significant difference between the current and standard visit costs with tariffs. Therefore, it is essential that policymakers improve the payment mechanism by modifying the visit tariffs for medical service providers. One suggestion in this way is using domestic relative value units according to costing research results.”

For more information on this research see: Calculation of the Visit Costs of Various Services Provider Groups: Improvement of Payment Mechanisms. Journal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics, 2021,5(2):99-105. (Journal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics - http://journals.ssu.ac.ir/jebhpme/index.php?sid=1&slc_lang=fa). The publisher for Journal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics is Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Asma Sabermahani, Management and Medical Information Sciences Department, Student Research Committee, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. Additional authors for this research include Mohammad Jafari Siriz, Mohsen Barouni.

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