RESEARCH ARTICLE
Investigating the Share of Covid-19 Patients from Treatment Direct Costs
Ali Reza Yusefi1, Eshagh Barfar2, Reza Faryabi1, *, Jamshid Bahmaei3, Ehsan Movahed1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 16
E-location ID: e187494452306231
Publisher ID: e187494452306231
DOI: 10.2174/18749445-v16-230714-2023-39
Article History:
Received Date: 11/02/2023Revision Received Date: 07/06/2023
Acceptance Date: 12/06/2023
Electronic publication date: 24/07/2023
Collection year: 2023
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.
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.
