Comparison of actual hospital costs versus DRG revenues for in-patient treatment of febrile neutropenia during adjuvant anthracycline plus/minus taxane-based chemotherapy for primary breast cancer

Comparison of Real Cost Versus the Indonesian Case Base Groups (INA-CBGs) Tariff Rates Among Patients of High- Incidence Cancers Under the National Health Insurance Scheme

Background: The national health insurance of Indonesia has implemented the Indonesian Case Base Groups (INA-CBGs) tariff rates for healthcare payment. However, there is still problem of difference between the real cost of healthcare and the INA-CBGs tariff rates. This study aimed to evaluate the real cost of healthcare in comparison with the INA-CBG’s tariff rates and to analyze factors associating with the real cost. The study focus on healthcare cost of non-chemotherapy expenditure among patients of high-incidence cancers having chemotherapy covered by the national health insurance. Methods: The study was conducted from the perspective of healthcare provider. Costs data was obtained from hospital billing of Sanglah hospital, a referral hospital in Bali Provincein the period of January – July 2014. The data involved 383, 161, and 152 of in-patient breast cancer cases, cervical cancer cases, and nasopharyngeal cancer cases, respectively. Descriptive statistic was used to analyze patients characteristics, one sample t-test was used to analyze the mean difference of healthcare cost based on real cost and INA-CBG’s tariff rates, and finally, bivariate analysis was used to examine relationship between patients’ characteristics and the real cost. Results: The study shows there were significant differences of non-chemotherapy expenditures based on the real cost and INA-CBG’s tariff rates, in which the costs were lower for the real cost. Factors which significantly associated with the real cost were number of procedure, type of hospitalized room, and length of stay. Conclusions: The study supports the necessary of evaluation of the INA-CBG’s tariff rates to adjust to the real healthcare expenditure. On the other hand, the hospital needs to evaluate the service quality of patient treatment by optimizing budget allocated by the health insurance.

Relevance of health economics in breast cancer treatment: integration of economics in the management of breast cancer at the clinic level

Since the introduction of the diagnosis-related groups (DRG) system with cost-related and entity-specific flat-rate reimbursements for all in-patients in 2004 in Germany, economics have become an important focus in medical care, including breast centers. Since then, physicians and hospitals have had to gradually take on more and more financial responsibilities for their medical care to avoid losses for their institutions. Due to financial limitations of resources, most medical services have to be adjusted to correlating revenues, which results in the development of a variety of active measures to understand, steer, and optimize costs, resources and related processes for breast cancer treatment. In this review, the challenging task to implement microeconomic management at the clinic level for breast cancer treatment is analyzed from breast cancer-specific publications. The newly developed economic management perspective is identified for different stakeholders in the healthcare system, and successful microeconomic projects and future aspects are described.

A pragmatic guide on how physicians can take over financial control of their clinical practice

Control of clinical cost is becoming increasingly important in health care worldwide. Physicians should accept the limitation of resources and take responsibility to improve their clinical cost-reimbursement ratio. To achieve this, they will need basic education in clinic management to control and adjust costs and reimbursement, without impacting professional quality of care. Rational use of diagnostics and therapy should be implemented and frequently verified. Physicians are the only professionals that are able to integrate economics with health care. This is in the best interest of patients and will improve a physician's position, influence, and professional freedom levels within our hospitals.

Financial Quality Control of In-Patient Chemotherapy in Germany: Are Additional Payments Cost-Covering for Pharmaco-Oncological Expenses?

SUMMARY: BACKGROUND: Cost-covering in-patient care is increasingly important for hospital providers in Germany, especially with regard to expensive oncological pharmaceuticals. Additional payments (Zusatzentgelte; ZE) on top of flat rate diagnose-related group (DRG) reimbursement can be claimed by hospitals for in-patient use of selected medications. To verify cost coverage of in-patient chemotherapies, the costs of medication were compared to their revenues. METHOD: From January to June 2010, a retrospective cost-revenue study was performed at a German obstetrics/gynecology university clinic. The hospital's pharmacy list of inpatient oncological therapies for breast and gynecological cancer was checked for accuracy and compared with the documented ZEs and the costs and revenues for each oncological application. RESULTS: N = 45 in-patient oncological therapies were identified in n = 18 patients, as well as n = 7 bisphosphonate applications; n = 11 ZEs were documented. Costs for oncological medication were € 33,752. The corresponding ZE revenues amounted to only € 13,980, resulting in a loss of € 19,772. All in-patient oncological therapies performed were not cost-covering. Data discrepancy, incorrect documentation and cost attribution, and process aborts were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Routine financial quality control at the medicine-pharmacy administration interface is implemented, with monthly comparison of costs and revenues, as well as admission status. Non-cost-covering therapies for in-patients should be converted to out-patient therapies. Necessary adjustments of clinic processes are made according to these results, to avoid future losses.