An empirical study on the effects of two-way referral system: A perspective of medical service consumers / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the effects of the bi-directional referral system from the perspective of the medical service consumer.Methods: A balanced panel data which was adjusted by Propensity Score Matching was employed to evaluate the effects of two-way referral system using difference-in-difference (DID) for the 2013 and 2015 data.The evaluation indicators including actual cost sharing ration, out-of-pocket cost per unit, the possibility of high cost, annual inpatient visits and length of hospital stay per unit were used.Results: Compared with the control group, the two-way referral system resulted in an 11.3% (P<0.001) increase in actual cost sharing ratio and an increase of 0.710 (P<0.001) annual inpatient visits in the intervention group.However, the policy did not significantly reduce the possibility of high-cost medical expenses and reduce the length of hospitalization and the annual cost hospitalization.Conclusion: Based on the key findings of the analysis of this study, the two-way referral system has beneficial effects on reducing inpatient financial burden and optimizing resource allocation.