Distribution of the public healthcare budget of Catalonia (Spain) for 2005 among the 17 ICD-9-CM categories

Abstract

OBJECTIVES To describe the distribution of the Catalan public healthcare budget for 2005 among the 17 ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth revision, clinical modification) categories. MATERIAL AND METHOD The methodology comprised 2 phases: an initial phase in which the global budget was distributed by type of healthcare (hospital, outpatient or pharmacological care), and a second phase in which the expenditure was distributed by the type of care among the ICD-9-CM categories. In the first phase, this distribution was based on information enabling the various budget items to be assigned to the different types of care. Various elements were used for the distribution by categories, depending on each type of care: hospital stay, outpatient visit or consumption by therapeutic subgroup. RESULTS Distribution of the budget was as follows: 46.6% for specialized care, 27.5% for pharmacological care, and 20.0% for primary care; 5.9% was not distributed. Of the 17 categories, that accounting for the largest percentage (17.3%) was diseases of the circulatory system (VII), followed by category VIII, diseases of the respiratory system which totaled 10.9%. The budget was concentrated in 5 categories, the 2 mentioned above plus category V mental (9.4%), category II tumors (9.1%) and category IX disorders of the digestive system (7.7%), which accounted for 54.4% of the total budget. The internal composition of each category showed major variations. CONCLUSION The distribution of the budget offers a point of reference for health planning and management.