Does a mandatory telemedicine call prior to visiting a physician reduce costs or simply attract good risks?

Détails

Ressource 1Télécharger: BIB_35F8B08AB042.P001.pdf (590.57 [Ko])
Etat: Public
Version: de l'auteur⸱e
ID Serval
serval:BIB_35F8B08AB042
Type
Rapport: document publié par une institution, habituellement élément d'une série.
Sous-type
Working paper: document de travail dans lequel l'auteur présente les résultats de ses travaux de recherche. Les working papers ont pour but de stimuler les discussions scientifiques avec les milieux intéressés et servent de base pour la publication d'articles dans des revues spécialisées.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Titre
Does a mandatory telemedicine call prior to visiting a physician reduce costs or simply attract good risks?
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Grandchamp Chantal, Gardiol Lucien
Editeur
Institute of health economics and management
Détails de l'institution
IEMS
Adresse
Institute of health economics and management (IEMS) Université de Lausanne Bâtiment Extranef CH-1015 Lausanne Switzerland
Date de publication
2008
Numéro
08-01
Genre
Working paper
Langue
anglais
Nombre de pages
21
Notes
Mention de responsabiblité : / Chantal Grandchamp and Lucien Gardiol SAPHIRID:64133 --- Old pages value: 21 p.
Résumé
This paper aims to estimate empirically the efficiency of a Swiss telemedicine service introduced in 2003. We used claims' data gathered by a major Swiss health insurer, over a period of six years and involving 160 000 insured adults. In Switzerland, health insurance is mandatory, but everyone has the option of choosing between a managed care plan and a fee-for-service plan. The present paper focuses on a conventional fee-for-service plan including a mandatory access to a telemedicine service; the insured are obliged to phone this medical call centre prior to visiting a physician. This type of plan generates much lower average health expenditures than a conventional insurance plan. Reasons for this may include selection, incentive effects or simply efficiency. In our sample, about 90% of the difference in health expenditure can be explained by selection and incentive effects. The remaining 10% of savings due to the efficiency of the telemedicine service amount to about SFr 150 per year per insured, of which approx. 60% is saved by the insurer and 40% by the insured. While the plan is cost-effective, the big winners are the insured who not only save monetary and non-monetary costs, but also benefit from reduced premiums. [Authors]
Mots-clé
Telemedicine , Insurance, Health , Health Expenditures
Création de la notice
14/03/2008 11:12
Dernière modification de la notice
20/08/2019 14:23
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