Impact of primary care oriented outpatient benefit package design in new rural cooperative medical system on hypertension outpatient services utilization / 北京大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the impact of primary care oriented outpatient benefits package design of outpatient services coverage and ladder reimbursement of county , town and village levels in the new ru-ral cooperative medical system ( NRCMs) on hypertension outpatient services utilization .Methods:The panel data of treatment and control groups in 2009 and 2011 before and after the policy reform were drawn from the household survey data of the innovative payment system project .The difference in difference ( DID) method was used for data analysis .The outcome indicators included the utilization of outpatient services of patients with self-reported hypertension and their main treatment locations .Results:The pri-mary care oriented outpatient benefit package design in the NRCMs reduced the probability of no treat-ment in the latest three months of hypertension by 10.2 percent points.Meanwhile, it increased the prob-ability of choosing village clinic as the preferred location by 15 .7 percent points .Conclusion: Primary care oriented outpatient benefits package design lead patients with hypertension to use the nearest outpa -tient services at low risk of disease .