Influence of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme on hospitalization cost of patients with nephrotic syndrome in rural China

Suping Zhang,Tao Peng,Yi Wang,Zhao Hu,Xiangdong Yang,Wenlu Guo

doi:10.22605/rrh3562

Suping Zhang, Tao Peng + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.22605/rrh3562

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Abstract

Rural residents are benefitting from the current New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) in China. Treatment of diseases has improved and the total cost of hospitalization has decreased significantly because of the application of NCMS. Most articles in this area have mainly focused on the policy of NCMS, but few studies have been relevant to the influence of NCMS on a specific disease and the cost. In the present study, the impact of NCMS on hospitalization costs of patient with nephrotic syndrome from the countryside was investigated and discussed. Three hundred and ninety patients from China and with nephrotic syndrome were enrolled into the present study and were divided into two groups according to whether they had joined the NCMS. The total hospitalization cost, check cost (such as laboratory testing and ultrasound), drugs cost, length of stay in hospital and ratio of renal biopsy in all patients were analyzed. The expenses for individuals decreased significantly in patients who were part of the NCMS, in contrast with the patients without the NCMS (p<0.001). The ratio of renal biopsy increased significantly in patients who were part of the NCMS (p<0.01). There was no significant difference in cost and length of stay between the two groups. The NCMS contributes to reducing personal expenses and therapy of disease.

Highlights

Rural residents are benefitting from the current New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) in China
The aim of the present study is to evaluate the hospitalization cost of rural patients with nephrotic syndrome and to provide useful data for improving the NCMS
There was no significant difference between the two groups on length of stay in hospital (14.5±2.7 days vs 13.6±1.9 days), but significant difference (p

Summary

Introduction

Rural residents are benefitting from the current New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) in China. The New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) is a voluntary health insurance program established in 2003 to reduce the risk of catastrophic health spending for rural residents in China. It is guided, organized and conducted by the government and financed in part from household contributions and in part from government subsidies[1]. The NCMS had been taken up by 850 million rural residents by the end of 2008 and throughout rural areas in China by 2010, and has been a main component of the Chinese new rural medical insurance system since It has been hailed by WHO and the World Bank as the only example of developing countries addressing health funding. With the expanded scale of NCMS, there has been a basic protection in the health care needs of the farmers, and NCMS can play an active role in more affluent areas of Chinese society[2,3]

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