Aging and declining health are intrinsically related and are resulting in increasing healthcare spending in many countries. Control of healthcare spending and patient usage behavior are linked. This study examines the healthcare usage behavior of chronically ill elderly patients in Taiwan following an increase in co-payments. The differences in usage behavior are interpreted by comparing the fr...

The purpose of this study is to estimate structural elements of patients’ demand functions for healthcare facilities, particularly hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), towards the goal of answering questions about welfare gains earned from the introduction of ASCs. Spatial variation across patients and facilities, among other variables, is used for identification. Using data that co...

End of life care in England has recently been framed by two very different discourses. One (connected to advance care planning) promotes personal choice, the other promotes compassionate care; both are prominent in professional, policy and media settings. The article outlines the history of who promoted each discourse from 2008 to early 2015, when, why and how and this was done. Each discourse ...

Over the past three decades, evidence has accumulated that demonstrates that the US healthcare system as currently structured is untenable given the cost of healthcare, poor outcomes associated with this cost, imminent shortages in many categories of health professionals, and underutilization of other health professionals. The system also faces other challenges, such as the lack of access to ca...

Realist reviews are a new form of knowledge synthesis aimed at providing middle-range theories (MRTs) that specify how interventions work, for which populations, and under what circumstances. This approach opens the 'black box' of an intervention by showing how it triggers mechanisms in specific contexts to produce outcomes. We conducted a realist review of health user fee exemption policies (U...

BACKGROUND Diabetes Mellitus is a multifaceted chronic illness and its life-long treatment process requires patients to continuously engage with the healthcare system. The understanding of how patients manoeuvre through the healthcare system for treatment is crucial in assisting them to optimise their disease management. This study aims to explore issues determining patients' treatment strategi...