Comparing data from both the 1999 MCBS and drug utilization data supplied by the survey respondents' pharmacies, the author details the methods used to determine the level of misreporting of drug expenditures in the MCBS. Findings suggest that prescription drug expenditures are underreported by 17 percent and the number of prescriptions used is underreported by 17.7 percent. The data also ident...

OBJECTIVES The government of China has introduced a National Essential Medicines Policy (NEMP) in the new round of health system reform. The objective of this paper is to analyse whether the NEMP can play a role in curbing the rise of medical expenditures without disrupting the availability of healthcare services at township hospitals in China. DESIGN This study adopted a pre-post treatment-c...

BACKGROUND Other than the UK, The Netherlands has no formal threshold for cost-per-QALY values defined yet. For example, a cutoff value at €20,000 per QALY is sometimes mentioned in various discussions, however it has no formal status at all. Yet, since 2005, all new innovative do have to go through a cost-effectiveness evaluation though, with the assessment being focused on the methodology rat...

Background: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is one of the greatest social health problems in many communities in the twenty-first century. Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) could decrease HIV infection among injection drug users (IDU). The main aim of this paper was to determine the cost-effectiveness of the governmental MMT program to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) i...

BACKGROUND Information about the effect of the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit on drug utilization and expenditures is limited. OBJECTIVE To estimate changes in prescription utilization and out-of-pocket expenditures attributable to Part D among a sample of persons eligible for the benefit. DESIGN Generalized estimating equations were used to estimate changes in expenditures and u...

A simultaneous equations model is estimated to analyze the interaction between state Medicaid pharmaceutical drug reimbursement rates, drug recipients per capita, and expenditures per drug recipient. Interest groups are shown to have a strong positive impact on pharmacy reimbursement rates, which, in turn, have an impact on pharmacy participation rates and drug utilization and expenditure patte...

BACKGROUND In view of the current economic crisis and the resulting austerity measures being implemented by governments across Europe, public expenditure for substance abuse treatment has increasingly become a subject of discussion. An EU cross-country comparison would allow an estimation of the total amount of public resources spent on substance abuse treatment, compare various substance abuse...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the quantitative effects of the drug price reduction on pharmaceutical expenditures and the new guidelines to restrict prescribing on drug utilisation for antihypertensive drugs. DESIGN We used an interrupted time series design with the National patient sample data of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in South Korea. METHODS 54,295 participants who were w...

background: protecting households against financial risks is one of objectives of any health system. in this regard, iran's fourth five year developmental plan act in its 90th article, articulated decreasing household's exposure to catastrophic health expenditure to one percent. hence, this study aimed to measure percentage of iranian households exposed to catastrophic health expenditures and t...