Abstract
BackgroundRegional variation in healthcare utilization could reflect unequal access to care, which may lead to detrimental consequences to quality of care and costs. The aims of this study were to a) describe the degree of regional variation in utilization of 24 diverse healthcare services in eligible populations in Switzerland, and b) identify potential drivers, especially health insurance-related factors, and explore the consistency of their effects across the services.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study using health insurance claims data for the year of 2014. The studied 24 healthcare services were predominantly outpatient services, ranging from screening to secondary prevention. For each service, a target population was identified based on applicable clinical recommendations, and outcome variable was the use of the service. Possible influencing factors included patients’ socio-demographics, health insurance-related and clinical characteristics. For each service, we performed a comprehensive methodological approach including small area variation analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and multilevel multivariable modelling using 106 mobilité spaciale regions as the higher level. We further calculated the median odds ratio in model residuals to assess the unexplained regional variation.ResultsUnadjusted utilization rates varied considerably across the 24 healthcare services, ranging from 3.5% (osteoporosis screening) to 76.1% (recommended thyroid disease screening sequence). The effects of health insurance-related characteristics were mostly consistent. A higher annual deductible level was mostly associated with lower utilization. Supplementary insurance, supplementary hospital insurance and having chosen a managed care model were associated with higher utilization of most services. Managed care models showed a tendency towards more recommended care. After adjusting for multiple influencing factors, the unexplained regional variation was generally small across the 24 services, with all MORs below 1.5.ConclusionsThe observed utilization rates seemed suboptimal for many of the selected services. For all of them, the unexplained regional variation was relatively small. Our findings confirmed the importance and consistency of effects of health insurance-related factors, indicating that healthcare utilization might be further optimized through adjustment of insurance scheme designs. Our comprehensive approach aids in the identification of regional variation and influencing factors of healthcare services use in Switzerland as well as comparable settings worldwide.
Highlights
Regional variation in healthcare utilization could reflect unequal access to care, which may lead to detrimental consequences to quality of care and costs
Our findings confirmed the importance and consistency of effects of health insurance-related factors, indicating that healthcare utilization might be further optimized through adjustment of insurance scheme designs
Our comprehensive approach aids in the identification of regional variation and influencing factors of healthcare services use in Switzerland as well as comparable settings worldwide
Summary
Regional variation in healthcare utilization could reflect unequal access to care, which may lead to detrimental consequences to quality of care and costs. A substantial portion may reflect inappropriate variability due to unequal access to care, potentially detrimental for quality of care and costs [3]. This unwarranted component, difficult to quantify, should be minimized in order to improve the quality, equity, and efficiency of healthcare [4]. Regional variation may be driven by multiple factors, including patient socio-demographics, clinical characteristics, availability of physicians and healthcare facilities, and healthcare system-related factors [2] They can function as personal, financial, and organizational modifiers of access to care [5]. We would regard related findings as more meaningful and instructive where same direction of effects is observed across diverse healthcare services
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