The impact of a medication record sharing program among diabetes patients under a single-payer system: The role of inquiry rate

Long-term effects of the global budget program and periodic price adjustment on antibacterial agents: A nationwide decomposition analysis between 2001 and 2016

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown that financial strategies are beneficial for improving the appropriate use of antibiotics within a limited period of time. Long-term effects have rarely been explored.

METHODS

This study evaluated the changes in expenditure and prescription patterns of antibacterial agents under the global budget (GB) program and drug price adjustment of a National Health Insurance scheme. Two structural methods, that is, the Laspeyres method and Fisher's Ideal Index decomposition method, were used to illustrate the impacts of price, volume, and drug change.

RESULTS

During the first 5 years of the GB program (ie, 2001-2006), the expenses of antibacterial agents increased by 54.1%, while the volume decreased by 11% to 21.3%. Therapeutic choice was the predominant cause of expense growth. In the second and third 5-year periods (ie, 2006-2011 and 2011-2016), the driving force of therapeutic choice gradually decreased. The antibacterial expense remained stable with a slight increase in prescription volume. Periodic price adjustment contributed steadily to cost containment, by 21.9% to 39.9%.

CONCLUSIONS

The GB program led to a remarkable increase in antibacterial expenses mainly attributed to therapeutic choice, especially in the early stage. In contrast, periodic price adjustment, provided steady benefits to pharmaceutical budget control without a noticeable increase in drug volume.

Health Information Technology and Doctor Shopping: A Systematic Review

Doctor shopping is the practice of visiting multiple physicians to obtain multiple prescriptions. Health information technology (HIT) allows healthcare providers and patients to leverage records or shared information to improve effective care. Our research objective was to determine how HIT is being leveraged to control for doctor shopping. We analyzed articles that covered a 10-year time period from four databases and reported using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA). We compared intervention, study design, and bias, in addition to showing intervention interactions with facilitators, barriers, and medical outcomes. From 42 articles published from six countries, we identified seven interventions, five facilitator themes with two individual observations, three barrier themes with six individual observations, and two medical outcome themes with four individual observations. Multiple HIT mechanisms exist to control for doctor shopping. Some are associated with a decrease in overdose mortality, but access is not universal or compulsory, and data sharing is sporadic. Because shoppers travel hundreds of miles in pursuit of prescription drugs, data sharing should be an imperative. Research supports leveraging HIT to control doctor shopping, yet without robust data sharing agreements, the efforts of the system are limited to the efforts of the entity with the least number of barriers to their goal. Shoppers will seek out and exploit that organization that does not require participation or checking of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP), and the research shows that they will drive great distances to exploit this weakest link.

Health care utilization pattern prior to maltreatment among children under five years of age in Taiwan

BACKGROUND

Several studies have hypothesized that the pattern of health care utilization among maltreated children differ from others without the experience. However, the conclusions have not been consistent.

OBJECTIVE

The study aims to examine whether the pattern of health care utilization among children 0-5 years old with maltreatment different from their counterparts without maltreatment in Taiwan.

SUBJECTS AND SETTING

All children born in 2007 in Taiwan.

METHOD

This is a population-based and case-controlled study. Cases are children under five years of ago with maltreatment-related diagnosis in the claims data of the National Health Insurance in Taiwan during the 2007-2013 period. For each case, there were 10 birth date-matched controls. Exposure variables include the number of injury or non-injury-related outpatients, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalization. Multivariate models were employed, with adjustment for sex, urbanization level, and comorbidities of children.

RESULTS

Of children born in 2007, 382 had maltreatment-related diagnosis during the age of 0-5. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for having two or more ED visits with or without injury-related diagnosis is 3.52 (95% CI 1.75-7.07) and 2.0-0 (95% CI 1.47-2.72), respectively. Children with maltreatment also had significantly higher number of hospitalization without injury-related diagnosis and aOR for those having two more hospitalizations stands at 2.47 (95% CI 1.59-3.83).

CONCLUSIONS

Children with maltreatment when 0-5 years old had higher number of ED visits with injury-related diagnosis, as well as hospitalization without injury-related diagnosis. Recognition of the health care utilization is conducive to early identification of children with risk for maltreatment.

The Impact of a National Health Information Exchange Program Under a Single-payer System

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the PharmaCloud program, a health information exchange program implemented in 2013, on medication duplication under a single-payer, universal health insurance program in Taiwan.

STUDY DESIGN

This study employed a retrospective pre-post study design and used nationwide health insurance claim data from 2013 to 2015. A difference-in-difference analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of inquiry rate on the probability of receiving duplicate medications and on the number of days of overlapping medication prescriptions after implementation of the PharmaCloud program.

RESULTS

The study subjects included patients receiving medications in 7 categories: antihypertension drugs, 217,200; antihyperlipidemic drugs, 69,086; hypoglycemic agents, 103,962; antipsychotic drugs, 15,479; antidepressant drugs, 12,057; sedative and hypnotic drugs, 56,048; and antigout drugs, 18,250. Up to 2015, the overall PharmaCloud inquiry rate has increased to 55.36%-69.16%. Compared with subjects in 2013, subjects in 2014 and 2015 had a significantly lower likelihood of receiving duplicate medication in all 7 medication groups; for instance, for antihypertension drug users, the odds ratio (OR) was 0.91 with 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.90-0.92 in 2014, and the OR was 0.81 with 95% confidence interval=0.81-0.82 in 2015. However, a higher inquiry rate led to a lower likelihood of receiving duplicate medication and shorter periods of overlapping medications only in some of the medication groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The health information exchange program has reduced medication duplication, yet the reduction was not entirely associated with record inquiries. The hospitals have responded to the challenge of medication duplication by enhancing internal prescription control via a prescription alert system, which may have contributed to the reduction in duplicate medications and is a positive, unintended consequence of the intervention.