How to reduce health expenses by using Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)? Based on the analysis of inpatients' TCM expenses and typical diseases in Ningxia Province / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

Objective The objective of this paper is to statistically analyze what influence can the utilization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have on healthcare expenses of inpatients, and to investigate whether TCM has an advantage of reducing healthcare expenses among certain diseases.Method: Inpatient medical records from 13 public general hospitals in Ningxia Hui autonomous region were collected to set up a database.A multiple linear regression models was established and used to analyze the impact of using TCM on hospitalization expenses.Results: The findings have shown that inpatients who apply TCM have significantly higher hospitalization expenses, with an estimated average of ?8 276.24, while those who do not apply TCM in their treatment spend ?7 254.59 on average (P=0.000).When the proportion of TCM expense higher than 10% of total drug expense, inpatients who apply the TCM have lower hospitalization expenses.In addition, hospitalization expenses decrease with the increase of TCM proportion.Among the diseases of the ear and mastoid disease, diseases of the circulatory system, and certain conditions originating in the perinatal period, inpatients who apply TCM have significant lower hospitalization expense (P=0.000).Hospitalization expense of inpatients who do not apply TCM is twice as much as that of those who apply TCM in the treatment of among diseases of the circulatory system, which has the largest TCM proportion.Conclusion: Only when applying TCM as main therapy can provide price advantage of TCM in the circulatory system caused by chronic diseases, and other advantages of treatment.