Reasons of Induced Demand in Delivering Services to the Insured by Health Insurance: A Case Study in Esfahan, 2013

Abstract

Introduction: Induced demand is one of the health challenges of our country.  Paid costs by insurance lead to waste of health system resource.

Methods: This descriptive- analytical study has been conducted to evaluate induced demand using information of first level services to the insured individuals in 2013. logit model was run by EViews version 7 for analyzing results. In logit mode, two dependent variables including total cost and total time were studied. The final effect of independent variables on these dependent variables was evaluated as a final impact on induced demand.

Results: In stipulated model of total cost, type of physicians’ contract (P=0.0195), physicians’ age (P= 0.0474) and visit of female patients (P<0.001) were statistically significant. In stipulated model of total time, type of physicians’ contract (P= 0.008), visiting patient aged more than 60 years (P=0.0144), visiting patients aged less than 5 years (P=0.0001) and number of referring (P=0.019) were statistically significant. Ultimate effect on total cost of type of physicians’ contract was 11%; considering total time, the type of physicians’ contract with highest effect was 19%.

Conclusion: Results of this research showed that health policy authorities should imped delivery of unnecessary services and optimize allocation of health resources through adopting a scientific method based on purchasing services by the insurer, approval of standards and rules, and determining logical treatment framework.