Journal article

Effects of Public Hospital Reform on Inpatient Expenditures in Rural China

Yuting Zhang, Qianheng Ma, Yingchun Chen, Hongxia Gao

HEALTH ECONOMICS | WILEY | Published : 2017

Abstract

Public hospital reform is one priority area in the healthcare system reform that China launched in 2009. The Chinese government invested over $10bn for pilot projects in public hospital reform in rural China. However, little evidence exists on their effects. Using a quasi-natural experiment design, we evaluated the effects of a public hospital pilot project in Hubei province on inpatient spending. We obtained inpatient claims data from 1/1/2011 through 6/30/2013 for enrollees in the New Cooperative Medical Scheme in two counties: Danjiangkou, one of the pilot counties selected for reform in September 2012, and Laohekou, a similar, adjacent county serving as the control group. Using a dif..

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Grants

Awarded by Chinese Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities


Funding Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding from Project 2013WT011 supported by Chinese Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.