RESEARCH ARTICLE


Investigating the Share of Covid-19 Patients from Treatment Direct Costs



Ali Reza Yusefi1, Eshagh Barfar2, Reza Faryabi1, *, Jamshid Bahmaei3, Ehsan Movahed1
1 Department of Public Health, School of Health, Jiroft University of Medical Sciences, Jiroft, Iran
2 Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran
3 Department of Public Health, Behbahan Faculty of Medical Sciences, Behbahan, Iran


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Creative Commons License
© 2023 Yusefi et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Public Health, School of Health, Jiroft University of Medical Sciences, Jiroft, Iran;
Tel: +989131484695; E-mail: rfphdjmu@gmail.com


Abstract

Background:

A part of the household income in all countries is allocated to health-related expenses.

Objective:

This study was conducted to estimate out-of-pocket payments for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in southern Iran.

Methods:

The present descriptive-analytical study was conducted cross-sectionally in 2022. To this end, the financial records of 450 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in hospitals affiliated with Jiroft University of Medical Sciences were collected. The study settings included six hospitals selected and analyzed using stratified random sampling. The data were collected through a researcher-made checklist and analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation coefficient using SPSS23 software at the significance level of 0.05.

Results:

The total direct costs were estimated at 25,208,899,708 Rials Iran (600,211.89 $US), of which 9.37% was the patient's share (2,361,227,375 Rials Iran; 56,219.70 $US). Among the types of services, pharmaceutical services with 50.23% of the patients' share (1,186,031,713 Rials Iran; 28,238.85 $US) accounted for the highest cost of out-of-pocket payments. The length of stay and the type of insurance coverage had a statistically significant relationship with direct payment from patients' pockets (P < 0.05).

Conclusion:

Based on the findings, 9.37% of the total direct costs of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 were out-of-pocket. The results of this study confirm the necessity of making decisions about and taking effective measures to reduce the financial pressure of the disease on the patients and their families.

Keywords: Health expenditures, Health costs, Out-of-pocket payment, COVID-19, Health financing, Respiratory infection.