A co-payment for consultant services: Primary care physicians' referral actualization

Daniel A. Vardy; Tami Freud; Michael Sherf; Ofer Spilberg; Dan Goldfarb; Arnon D. Cohen; Shlomo Mor-Yosef; Pesach Shvartzman

doi:10.1007/s10916-007-9105-9

A co-payment for consultant services: Primary care physicians' referral actualization

Daniel A. Vardy, Tami Freud, Michael Sherf, Ofer Spilberg, Dan Goldfarb, Arnon D. Cohen, Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Pesach Shvartzman

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Prospective evaluation of the effect of a new co-payment for specialists consultations on actualization of referrals (2,432 patient), was examined. Actualization of the appointment, reasons for not actualizing, and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded. Actualization was 85.1% in community consultation clinics and 91.7% in hospital outpatient clinics. The main reasons for non actualization were: inability to reach the clinic (53.4%), the problem had resolved (15%), and co-payment (2%). In addition, 19.1% stated that they did not actualize a past consultant visit due to co-payment. Referring physicians noted that co-payment had some effect on their decision, especially with the elderly or lower income patients. A relatively small compulsory co-payment was not found to have a long term effect on utilization of specialists' services.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	37-41
Number of pages	5
Journal	Journal of Medical Systems
Volume	32
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-007-9105-9
State	Published - Feb 2008
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
study was supported by a grant from the for Health Policy and Health Services

Keywords

Co-payment
Consultation
Exemption
Health services use

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Medicine (miscellaneous)
Information Systems
Health Informatics
Health Information Management

Access to Document

10.1007/s10916-007-9105-9

Cite this

@article{461393cad2144c978aefd6f4f5a17854,

title = "A co-payment for consultant services: Primary care physicians' referral actualization",

abstract = "Prospective evaluation of the effect of a new co-payment for specialists consultations on actualization of referrals (2,432 patient), was examined. Actualization of the appointment, reasons for not actualizing, and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded. Actualization was 85.1% in community consultation clinics and 91.7% in hospital outpatient clinics. The main reasons for non actualization were: inability to reach the clinic (53.4%), the problem had resolved (15%), and co-payment (2%). In addition, 19.1% stated that they did not actualize a past consultant visit due to co-payment. Referring physicians noted that co-payment had some effect on their decision, especially with the elderly or lower income patients. A relatively small compulsory co-payment was not found to have a long term effect on utilization of specialists' services.",

keywords = "Co-payment, Consultation, Exemption, Health services use",

author = "Vardy, {Daniel A.} and Tami Freud and Michael Sherf and Ofer Spilberg and Dan Goldfarb and Cohen, {Arnon D.} and Shlomo Mor-Yosef and Pesach Shvartzman",

note = "Funding Information: study was supported by a grant from the for Health Policy and Health Services",

year = "2008",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1007/s10916-007-9105-9",

language = "English",

volume = "32",

pages = "37--41",

journal = "Journal of Medical Systems",

issn = "0148-5598",

publisher = "Springer New York",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A co-payment for consultant services

T2 - Primary care physicians' referral actualization

AU - Vardy, Daniel A.

AU - Freud, Tami

AU - Sherf, Michael

AU - Spilberg, Ofer

AU - Goldfarb, Dan

AU - Cohen, Arnon D.

AU - Mor-Yosef, Shlomo

AU - Shvartzman, Pesach

N1 - Funding Information: study was supported by a grant from the for Health Policy and Health Services

PY - 2008/2

Y1 - 2008/2

N2 - Prospective evaluation of the effect of a new co-payment for specialists consultations on actualization of referrals (2,432 patient), was examined. Actualization of the appointment, reasons for not actualizing, and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded. Actualization was 85.1% in community consultation clinics and 91.7% in hospital outpatient clinics. The main reasons for non actualization were: inability to reach the clinic (53.4%), the problem had resolved (15%), and co-payment (2%). In addition, 19.1% stated that they did not actualize a past consultant visit due to co-payment. Referring physicians noted that co-payment had some effect on their decision, especially with the elderly or lower income patients. A relatively small compulsory co-payment was not found to have a long term effect on utilization of specialists' services.

AB - Prospective evaluation of the effect of a new co-payment for specialists consultations on actualization of referrals (2,432 patient), was examined. Actualization of the appointment, reasons for not actualizing, and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded. Actualization was 85.1% in community consultation clinics and 91.7% in hospital outpatient clinics. The main reasons for non actualization were: inability to reach the clinic (53.4%), the problem had resolved (15%), and co-payment (2%). In addition, 19.1% stated that they did not actualize a past consultant visit due to co-payment. Referring physicians noted that co-payment had some effect on their decision, especially with the elderly or lower income patients. A relatively small compulsory co-payment was not found to have a long term effect on utilization of specialists' services.

KW - Co-payment

KW - Consultation

KW - Exemption

KW - Health services use

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38048999176&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10916-007-9105-9

DO - 10.1007/s10916-007-9105-9

M3 - Article

C2 - 18333404

AN - SCOPUS:38048999176

SN - 0148-5598

VL - 32

SP - 37

EP - 41

JO - Journal of Medical Systems

JF - Journal of Medical Systems

IS - 1

ER -

A co-payment for consultant services: Primary care physicians' referral actualization

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this