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Increased registration of hypertension and cancer diagnoses after the introduction of a new reimbursement system

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Author

  • Per Hjerpe
  • Kristina Bengtsson Bostrom
  • Ulf Lindblad
  • Juan Merlo

Summary, in English

Objective. To investigate the impact on ICD coding behaviour of a new case-mix reimbursement system based on coded patient diagnoses. The main hypothesis was that after the introduction of the new system the coding of chronic diseases like hypertension and cancer would increase and the variance in propensity for coding would decrease on both physician and health care centre (HCC) levels. Design. Cross-sectional multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed in periods covering the time before and after the introduction of the new reimbursement system. Setting. Skaraborg primary care, Sweden. Subjects. All patients (n = 76 546 to 79 826) 50 years of age and older visiting 468 to 627 physicians at the 22 public HCCs in five consecutive time periods of one year each. Main outcome measures. Registered codes for hypertension and cancer diseases in Skaraborg primary care database (SPCD). Results. After the introduction of the new reimbursement system the adjusted prevalence of hypertension and cancer in SPCD increased from 17.4% to 32.2% and from 0.79% to 2.32%, respectively, probably partly due to an increased diagnosis coding of indirect patient contacts. The total variance in the propensity for coding declined simultaneously at the physician level for both diagnosis groups. Conclusions. Changes in the healthcare reimbursement system may directly influence the contents of a research database that retrieves data from clinical practice. This should be taken into account when using such a database for research purposes, and the data should be validated for each diagnosis.

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

222-228

Publication/Series

Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care

Volume

30

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy

Keywords

  • Electronic health records
  • general practice
  • ICD codes
  • incentive
  • multilevel analysis
  • primary health care
  • reimbursement
  • Sweden

Status

Published

Research group

  • Social Epidemiology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0281-3432