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Economic burden of long-term care of rheumatoid arthritis patients in Hungary

The European Journal of Health Economics volume 15, pages 131–135 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Background and aim

Long-term care (LTC) in Hungary is provided in four major ways: day care, nursing, chronic care, and rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to explore the financing of LTC in Hungary, with a disease-specific focus on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

Data and methods

Data were derived from the National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA). For 2012, we analyzed the following indicators: number of patients and cases, crude and weighted hospital days, and health insurance expenditure.

Results

The annual health insurance expenditure of LTC was 112.6 million EUR in Hungary in 2012 and covered 209,000 patients (225,000 cases). The NHIFA spent 0.69 million EUR for the LTC of 976 patients with RA. The annual health insurance cost per patient was significantly (by 32 %) higher for patients with RA (710 EUR) than the average cost of all patients (538 EUR). The average length of stay was also higher for patients with RA (19.7 days) than for the general LTC population (17.4 days).

Conclusions

The cost of LTC of patients with RA is higher than the average cost of the general LTC patient population. Early treatment of RA patients could contribute to decreasing LTC expenditure. More generally, health technology assessment can inform future LTC funding debates in Central and Eastern European countries by putting more emphasis on LTC utilization and costs.

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Conflict of interest

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Institute for Health Insurance, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pécs, Mária u. 5–7, 7621, Pécs, Hungary

    Zoltán Horváth, Andor Sebestyén, Dóra Endrei & Imre Boncz

  2. Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    August Österle & Imre Boncz

  3. South-Transdanubian Regional Directorate, National Institute for Quality- and Organizational Development in Healthcare and Medicines (GYEMSZI), Széchenyi tér 9, 7621, Pécs, Hungary

    Zoltán Horváth

  4. South-Transdanubian Regional Office, National Health Insurance Fund Administration (OEP), Nagy Lajos király útja 3, 7645, Pécs, Hungary

    Andor Sebestyén

  5. Department of Socioeconomics, Institute for Social Policy, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020, Vienna, Austria

    August Österle

  6. Institute for Nursing and Patient Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pécs, Vörösmarty u. 4, 7621, Pécs, Hungary

    József Betlehem & András Oláh

  7. National Institute for Quality- and Organizational Development in Healthcare and Medicines (GYEMSZI), Fogaskerekű u. 10, 1125, Budapest, Hungary

    László Imre & Gabriella Bagosi

Authors
  1. Zoltán Horváth
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  2. Andor Sebestyén
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  3. August Österle
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  4. Dóra Endrei
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  5. József Betlehem
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  6. András Oláh
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  7. László Imre
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  8. Gabriella Bagosi
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  9. Imre Boncz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Imre Boncz.

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Horváth, Z., Sebestyén, A., Österle, A. et al. Economic burden of long-term care of rheumatoid arthritis patients in Hungary. Eur J Health Econ 15, 131–135 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-014-0601-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-014-0601-9

Keywords

  • Health care financing
  • Long-term care
  • Health insurance
  • Rheumatoid arthritis

JEL Classification

  • I18
  • I13
  • I11