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[Healthcare costs--does family physician training make a difference?]
Shlomo Vinker1, Asher Alchyani, Sasson Nakar
1Department of Family Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv.
Insights
Family physician specialization in family medicine and rural practice are linked to reduced healthcare costs. These findings suggest encouraging specialization can lower overall health system expenditures.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Management
- Medical Economics
- Primary Care Research
Context:
- Patient-dependent factors significantly influence healthcare costs.
- The impact of family physician background and training on healthcare costs remains unclear.
Purpose:
- To investigate the association between family physicians' background, training, and healthcare costs.
- To determine if specialization in family medicine affects treatment costs.
Summary:
- A study of 137 family physicians found that specialists in family medicine had 8.7% lower healthcare costs per 1,000 normalized patients compared to non-specialists.
- Factors associated with lower costs included specialization in family medicine and practicing in rural areas.
- Physicians graduated from the former USSR and Israel were included, with 40% being specialists.
Impact:
- Findings indicate that specialization in family medicine can lead to reduced healthcare costs.
- Lower costs were also observed in non-urban practices, suggesting a potential benefit for rural healthcare.
- Health system decision-makers should consider encouraging family medicine specialization to optimize healthcare spending.
Background:
There are many patient dependent factors that determine health care costs. However, it is not clear if the family physicians' background and training affects health care costs.
Aim:
To investigate if the family physicians background and training affect their costs.
Methods:
Included in the study were all the family physicians of Clalit Health Services, Central District according to the following criteria: at least two years work on the same patient list of at least 450 patients, doctors either with specialization in family medicine or with no specialization. The annual costs for treating 1,000 normalized patients (NP) were calculated for each doctor. The doctors' socio-demographic backgrounds were recorded including the country in which they graduated from medical studies, seniority, place of work and managerial position.
Results:
A total of 137 doctors treating 268,453 NP were investigated. The average age of the doctors was 47.4 +/- 8.0 years and on average they had 22.7 +/- 8.2 years of work experience as doctors. Most had graduated in the former USSR (57%), or Israel (20%). Forty percent were specialists in family medicine. We found an 8.7% reduction in health care costs for 1,000 NP over a year when comparing specialists in family medicine to non-specialists (p < 0.01). In multiple regression, the following factors were associated with lower costs: a country practice and specialization in family medicine.
Conclusion:
The health care costs are reduced by specialists in family medicine when compared to non-specialists. It also appears that costs are lower in non-urban practices. These findings should affect decision makers in the health system in encouraging specialization in family medicine.
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