Copayment Adjustments Under Bundled and Two-Tiered Pricing: Welfare Implications for Outpatient Care in Taiwanese Hospitals.
This study investigates the welfare implications of copayment adjustments on non-prescription drug services and prescription drugs provided through outpatient care in Taiwan's hospitals under the bundled and 2-tiered pricing scheme. The novelty of this study lies in its analysis of the welfare effec...
| Publicado en: | Inquiry (00469580) Vol. 62; pp. 1 - 16 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Sage Publications Inc.
8/31/2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=190551692&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 190551692 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00469580 INQ jtl: Inquiry (00469580) issn: 00469580 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 8/31/2025 vid: 62 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. artinfo: ui: 190551692 10.1177/00469580251366876 ppf: 1 ppct: 15 formats: tig: atl: Copayment Adjustments Under Bundled and Two-Tiered Pricing: Welfare Implications for Outpatient Care in Taiwanese Hospitals. aug: au: Chen, Wen-Yi affil: National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan su: Public welfare -- Economic aspects Outpatient services in hospitals Human services programs Research funding Scientific observation Cost analysis Health policy Hospitals Time series analysis Structural equation modeling Descriptive statistics Confidence intervals Drugs Medical care costs Nonprescription drugs Medical referrals Poverty Patients' attitudes Economics Taiwan sug: subj: Taiwan Public welfare -- Economic aspects Outpatient services in hospitals Human services programs Research funding Scientific observation Cost analysis Health policy Hospitals Time series analysis Structural equation modeling Descriptive statistics Confidence intervals Drugs Medical care costs Nonprescription drugs Medical referrals Poverty Patients' attitudes Economics keyword: bundle pricing compensated variation copayment adjustments deadweight loss outpatient prescription drugs Taiwan National Health Insurance two-tiered pricing welfare analysis willingness-to-pay ab: This study investigates the welfare implications of copayment adjustments on non-prescription drug services and prescription drugs provided through outpatient care in Taiwan's hospitals under the bundled and 2-tiered pricing scheme. The novelty of this study lies in its analysis of the welfare effects of outpatient copayments under this pricing structure. Structural change models were employed to estimate the welfare effects of copayment adjustments. The analysis reveals that higher copayments prior to physician consultations may lead to a pricing-out effect for low-income individuals in medical centers, while the impact is negligible in regional hospitals. The estimated willingness-to-pay (WTP) for an outpatient visit involving regular and refillable prescription drugs in medical centers is approximately NT$2024 (95% CI: [1978, 2072]) and NT$2312 (95% CI: [2267, 2357]), respectively. These values are 1.71 to 1.87 times higher than the WTP for comparable outpatient visits in regional hospitals, with estimates for regular (NT$1078; 95% CI: [1045, 1111]) and refillable prescription drugs (NT$1353; 95% CI: [1304, 1400]). The WTP for prescription drugs bundled within an outpatient visit ranges from NT$939 (95% CI: [908, 971]) to NT$1210 (95% CI: [1174, 1244]) in medical centers and from NT$308 (95% CI: [293, 322]) to NT$544 (95% CI: [514, 574]) in regional hospitals. Additionally, the share of deadweight loss (DWL) per outpatient visit attributable to regular prescription drugs (with a cost-sharing scheme) ranges from 14.58% to 31.15%, which is significantly lower than that attributable to refillable prescription drugs (without a cost-sharing scheme), ranging from 17.32% to 42.80%. Our findings highlight the underestimation of welfare effects from copayment policy changes and emphasize the 2-tiered scheme as an effective approach to mitigating DWL in outpatient care utilization in Taiwan's hospitals. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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