Evaluation on the difference between levels of medical services price and policy implications in Sichuan province / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

This paper designed an index for the differences in medical service prices and this index therein named the Hospital Price Difference Index ( HPDI) which is used as a quantitative tool for evaluation. During evalua-tion, the paper measured the levels of prices and the factors of influence in 18 public hospitals listed in the Sichuan Province. The results showed that the effect of regulating the levels of prices was reasonable and effective, but was sig-nificantly affected by the internal and external factors. The internal factors have been found to be the medical and clini-cal technologies, and the grade and scale acted as external ones. This paper suggested that the price department should pay more attention on the levels of prices, and hence made a reasonable reform project for the prices by taking the scale of adjustment of prices into account.