Determinants of Hospital Costs for Management of Chronic-Disease Patients in Southern Thailand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31584/jhsmr.2021787Keywords:
chronic disease, diagnosis-related groups, hospital costs, length of hospital stay, number of proceduresAbstract
Objective: Diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) are the main mechanism for assessing payments for medical treatment. This study aimed to analyze the determinants of costs for chronic-disease patient visits in a major public hospital.
Material and Methods: Hospital cost data available from the hospital database relating to claims made to the Thailand Health Security Office were obtained from a major tertiary hospital for all such patients admitted and discharged in 2016. Linear regression models were created to predict the cost based on several determinants including age and gender, primary diagnosis, number of diagnoses, length of stay, number of procedures, and discharge status.
Results: Only length of stay in hospital and number of procedures were significant predictors of the total hospital costs.
Conclusion: It thus appears that just a combination of these two factors might be a better measure of the true hospital visit costs for patients with chronic disease than DRGs.
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