Medical visits and health-care expenditures of patients attending orthopedic clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: LIFE Study.
Int J Qual Health Care
; 34(3)2022 Jul 09.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35808994
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The first state of emergency for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Japan was imposed from April to May 2020. During that period, people were urged to avoid non-essential outings, which may have reduced their access to health care.METHODS:
Using health-care claims data from a city in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of the state of emergency's impact on patients' medical visits to orthopedic clinics and their associated health-care expenditures. These measures were compared between 2019 and 2020 using a year-over-year analysis and unpaired t-tests.RESULTS:
The analysis showed that medical visits in 2020 significantly decreased by 23.7% in April (P < 0.01) and 17.6% in May (P < 0.01) when compared with the previous year. Similarly, monthly outpatient health-care expenditure significantly decreased by 2.4% (P < 0.01) in April 2020 when compared with April 2019. In contrast, the health-care expenditure per capita per visit significantly increased by 1.5% (P < 0.01) in June 2020 (after the state of emergency was lifted) when compared with June 2019.CONCLUSION:
As orthopedic clinics in Japan are reimbursed using a fee-for-service system, the increases in per capita expenditures after the state of emergency may be indicative of physician-induced demand. However, we posit that it is more likely that a post-emergency increase in anti-inflammatory and analgesic treatments for spondylopathies, low back pain and sciatica induced a temporary rise in these expenditures.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Gastos em Saúde
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudo:
Health_economic_evaluation
/
Observational_studies
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Asia
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article