The results of this study enrich the research evidence on the impact of the reform of medical insurance payment methods on the operation of medical institutions. This kind of evaluation of TMIPP reform based on CCMC is very rare in China , especially in areas with underdeveloped economic and medical conditions.As of the end of 2019, The CCMC in Y County Medical Insurance Fund had a total balance of 20.93 million yuan. These funds were allocated by the County People’s Hospital to different member units in accordance with policy objectives, with a focus on the development of basic health service centers and public health.The reform has saved a large amount of medical insurance funds for the less affluent Chinese county-level regions, which is worthy of promotion and application.
Discussion on reform effectiveness
We found that there are differences in the changes in the operational indicators of different levels of medical insurance funds before and after the reform in Y County.The number of people discharged from tertiary hospitals showed no difference before and after the reform, indicating that the inpatient service volume of tertiary hospitals remained stable;There was no difference in the trend of ALOS before and after the reform, while the the IE per capita, OIE per capita, and MIE per capita showed a trend of increase and decrease respectively before and after the reform, indicating that the effect of tertiary hospitals was significant. The possible reason is that excessive drugs, inspections and treatments have been curbed, resulting in effective savings in medical insurance funds.Although the IE per capita have decreased, the total income of county-level hospitals has increased. The principle of keeping the balance of medical insurance funds for use and over-expenditure means that the medical insurance funds have changed from hospital income to hospital costs.County-level hospitals account for 56% of the annual target of the medical insurance fund. At this time, keeping the medical insurance fund as surplus as possible on the basis of meeting the standards is a key issue for county-level core hospitals to consider.In this regard, the strategy of CCMC in County Y is to change the concept of “treatment-centered” to “people’s health-centered”, work hard to provide full-cycle health services to residents in the district, and shift the focus of work from disease treatment to health Management, to promote the hospital’s transition from “cure for disease” to “save money for disease prevention”.Therefore, the strategy of the County People’s Hospital is to focus on the optimization and integration of hospital resource allocation, medical treatment, public health business management and assessment, and health business intervention, while actively linking public health institutions to promote the integration of medical services and public health services deeply.
The average hospitalization days and the OIE per capita of basic health service centers have changed steadily before and after the reform, and NOADP has changed from a stable before the reform to an upward trend after the reform.IE per capita and MIE per capita remained stable before the reform, and both showed an upward trend after the reform.It is suggested that the reformed medical insurance reimbursement ratio is more inclined to the residents of basic health service centers, and the hospitalization expenses are reduced, which is more attractive to patients.The characteristics of changes in NOADP and the increase in MIE per capita over the same period also indicate that the reform of medical insurance payment methods encourages patients to be hospitalized in basic health service centers, which will promote the flow of medical insurance funds to basic health service centers, thereby strengthening the construction of basic health service centers .Previous studies have shown that due to the limitations of primary medical service conditions and the non-compulsory medical insurance reimbursement, patients are more inclined to seek treatment in tertiary hospitals, resulting in the excessive operation of medical services in large hospitals, and the embarrassing situation of primary hospitals, which not only exacerbates medical insurance ,additional expenses such as consumption of funds, travel and accommodation have also increased the burden on residents for medical treatment. The CCMC’s plan is to introduce the management concept of secondary hospitals to the basic health service center, and establish a flexible employment mechanism of "township management for county use, county management for township use, and township management for village use" to promote the cultivation of talents through the flow of talents.At the same time, with county-level hospitals as the link, CCMC promotes the construction of an information platform for high-definition network outpatient clinics, remote consultations in counties and townships, graded diagnosis and treatment, two-way referrals, and regional electronic medical records to further promote the sinking of medical and health resources and the linkage between county and township medical resources.By strengthening the capacity of primary health services, residents will increase their confidence in medical treatment in primary health institutions, and gradually form a medical treatment pattern of "small diseases do not go out of the village, common diseases do not go to the village, and serious diseases do not go out of the county",which can promote fund balance of county people's hospital.The allocation of medical insurance funds is also tilted towards basic health service centers, and the enthusiasm, service capabilities and management level of primary medical institutions are gradually improved.
ALOS for insured patients hospitalized outside the CCMC showed an increasing trend only before the reform,and MIE per capita only decreased in the month of the reform and remained stable after the reform.;NOADP showed no difference in the trend of change before the reform and the month of the reform, but the number showed a downward trend after the reform.Statistics show that OIE used 66.42 million yuan(Accounted for 29.43%)and 64.17 million yuan (Accounted for 26.73%)respectively in Y county in 2018 and 2019.This shows that after the reform, more patients choose to stay in CCMC for hospitalization, which also keeps their medical insurance funds in the medical community. Although some medical insurance funds have been lost,the overall pattern of medical care for patients has been optimized after the reform.The Chinese government requires counties to achieve the goal of 90% of patients in the county and 65% of patients in the basic health service center, but CCMC of Y County is still far from the policy requirements. There is an urgent need to implement the family doctor system to standardize the management of patients, strengthen the referral system to leave more patients, and improve medical service capabilities are also the direction that needs to be worked hard in the future.
Comparison with other medical insurance payment methods
Several major types of medical insurance payment methods widely used in the world include: fee-for-service, global payment, bundle payment, capitation, and Pay-for-performance.At present, most medical institutions in China adopt fee-for-service, which requires medical service providers to record the service items and quantity, and the payer checks the items and quantity and pays the medical expenses at the predetermined price.Therefore, this payment method has the risk of inducing medical demand, lacks a medical cost risk sharing mechanism, and medical cost is difficult to control[18-19],Studies by scholars in the United States have also shown that the false incentives for doctors caused by the payment method of payment by project is one of the important factors that cause the rapid growth of medical expenses in the United States[20].In contrast, other payment methods have their own characteristics. The advantage of capitation is that it can effectively control medical expenses, but the disadvantage is that if the medical market lacks competition, the doctor's service enthusiasm may be insufficient, which may reduce services and affect service quality.The main advantage of bundle payment is that it can reasonably control costs, thereby alleviating over-medical treatment, but its shortcomings may not be suitable for complex diseases. For some diseases with insufficient DRGs compensation standards, it will shun critically ill patients and choose high payment standards. Disease phenomenon[21-24].In addition, DRGs also has some practices in China, but we think it is not suitable for China's county-level regions, especially the central and western regions where the economy and medical care are underdeveloped.Relatively speaking, the current stage of medical insurance informatization in these areas and the standardization of hospital information systems are uneven, which leads to inadequate supervision and brings difficulties to the collection of large amounts of data required for DRGs coding.Second, after the implementation of DRGs, doctors may increase their income by over-diagnosing and changing the level of surgery, and cannot really save medical insurance funds; when facing the same price, patients are more likely to prefer county-level hospitals with better medical conditions. Nor can it change the current contradiction between county-level hospitals and primary health service centers, which runs counter to the reform goals;The total prepaid execution cost is low, and it can effectively control the medical cost, but its disadvantage is that it is difficult to ensure the quality of medical treatment and may cause medical institutions to reject patients[25-28].The performance-based payment method is usually implemented together with other payment methods. The purpose is to control costs while ensuring the quality of medical services. However, its drawback is that performance indicators are difficult to formulate and may induce doctors to ignore medical services other than performance evaluation goals. [29-30].
Compared with the above-mentioned medical insurance payment methods, CCMC-based TMIPP has its own unique advantages.First of all, CCMC takes the county people’s hospital as the core and implements unified management of human, financial and material resources for various medical institutions. This has transformed medical institutions at all levels from the previous competitive relationship to a symbiotic relationship, providing favorable conditions for the reform of the total medical insurance package payment method. After the reform, the annual indicators of medical and health institutions at all levels exceed the expenditures, and the medical community shall bear it.This means that the medical insurance fund has changed from medical income to medical costs, forcing medical institutions in the Medical Community to actively control unreasonable medical expenses, reduce the number of transferred patients, promote medical institutions to strengthen self-management, and improve the efficiency of fund use.It is worth noting that the CCMC in County Y included medical quality in the assessment of member units, and the assessment results were linked to the allocation of medical insurance funds, which prevented different medical institutions from shirking patients and reducing service quality.The use of surplus funds is mainly used for the training and introduction of medical technology talents, scientific research, medical equipment, and performance expenditures of grassroots medical staff, so as to gradually improve the medical capabilities and management level of member units, so that the CCMC can develop well and sustainably.