The Effects of the Multi-Hospital Global Budget Payment on Medical Expenditure and Service Volume: The Evidence from Dangyang County, China

Background: Global budget payment is currently the prevailing payment strategy internationally. In China, the concept of multi-hospital global budget payment has been proposed with the aims of achieving cost control effects while also encouraging hospital collaboration and optimising allocation of healthcare resources. This study seeks to analyse the impact of multi-hospital global budget payment in China on healthcare expenditure and service volume.
Materials and Methods: A retrospective comparative study was carried out in Dangyang County, China. The exposure cases were migrants who were not locally registered in the residence registration system. The study period encompassed January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019. Including 3,246,164 outpatient medical records and 242,685 inpatient medical records. The key variables are medical expenditure and service volume indicators. Continuous variables were reported as mean and tested by t-test. We used interrupted time series analysis models to estimate the changes in the level and trend of each outcome measure after the policy.
Results: After the outpatient global budget payment reform, the monthly medical expenditure of the hospital alliance has transitioned from a discernible upward trajectory to a deceleration in the rate of growth. The outpatient volume in public and private high-level hospitals decreased at a rate of − 419.26 person/month and − 137.04 person/month, respectively. In terms of inpatient service volume, only private high-level hospitals reported a decrease, with a reduction rate of − 15.38 individuals per month.
Conclusion: This study presents new evidence demonstrating that the multi-hospital global budget payment can effectively control costs and promote resource reallocation when implemented jointly with hospital alliance policies. However, overly lenient budget caps risk counterproductive effects.