BACKGROUND Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of malignant renal tumors with a growing incidence in the recent years. This study aimed to investigate the influencing factors and variation trend of hospitalization expenditures among RCC patients in a single-centered hospital in Beijing during 5 consecutive years and to find the major cost items and fluctuation tendency of inpatie...

BACKGROUND Opioids are widely prescribed for their analgesic properties. Chronic opioid use is a persistent problem in the US. Nevertheless, little is known about its prescribing and utilization patterns and overall expenditures. OBJECTIVE This study examined secular trends in opioid prescription drug utilization and expenditures, along with factors associated with opioid prescription drug us...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the effect of clinical trial participation on drug utilization, drug costs, and out-of-pocket expenditures for cancer patients. METHODS The study used a national probability sample of patients participating in cancer clinical trials and a matched cohort of patients not enrolled in trials but receiving treatment for the same cancers from the same providers. Subjects were ...

Several managerial mechanisms have been used by managed care organizations to affect prescription drug utilization and related expenditures. Some efforts have focused on monitoring clinical conditions, drug use, and compliance, whereas other efforts have focused on consumer cost sharing and changing product-mix. Efforts focusing on improving quality of care by identifying untreated patients or ...

BACKGROUND Insufficient social security combined with family structure changes has resulted in a poverty of the elderly. The objective of this study was to examine an association of living arrangements of the elderly with chronic disease prevalence and prescription drug use. METHODS 2008 Korea Health Panel Survey (KHPS) data were used in this study. Information on living arrangements, socio-d...

BACKGROUND The evidence on the long-term economic effects of obesity is still scarce. This study aims to analyse the impact of body mass index (BMI) and BMI-change on future pharmaceutical utilisation and expenditures. METHODS Based on data from 2,946 participants in a German population-based health survey (MONICA/KORA, 1994/95) and the follow-up study (2004/05), drug intake and expenditures ...

OBJECTIVES Pharmaceutical policies have become paramount in China and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region because of rapidly rising expenditures on drugs. The problems are especially acute in China because expenditures on drugs are typically so large. This article intends to review effects of the policy of drug expenditure containment with primary reference to China, and it proposes some...

BACKGROUND Reference-based pricing limits reimbursement for a group of drugs that are deemed therapeutically equivalent to the cost of the lowest-priced product within that group. We estimated the effect of reference-based pricing of nitrate drugs used for long-term prophylaxis on prescribing of and expenditures on nitrates and other anti-anginal drugs dispensed to senior citizens in British Co...