Analyzing Distortion Cost on Medical Service Item in Public Hospital in China

doi:10.7664/CHE20130910

Abstract：Objective: Through estimating the medical service item cost of public hospital, discuss the distortion degree on medical service costs and provide relevant policy suggestion. Methods: According to the National Medical Service Cost Estimating data base, applying the principle of geographical distribution and high data quality, select provincial, city-level and district-level public hospitals from Shandong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shanxi and Yunnan; using the total cost accounting method via step-down methodology to estimate the unit cost for 3 488 medical service items of 36 hospitals, calculate the proportion of cost-recovered medical services and fit the frequency distribution curve for the ratio(charge at cost) in each category of medical services. Results: Only ultrasonic examination and medical imaging medical services have cost advantage, the majority of other categories services are not easy to recover the cost; both cost-recovered medical services and non cost-covered medical services abounded in all categories services. Conclusion: Reducing the charges for ultrasonic examination and medical imaging medical services, appropriately increasing the charges for medical services which highly reflect the value of the technology and labor; enhancing the status of cost estimation in the medical service pricing process and using more advanced mode of payment for medical service.