China’s new policy for healthcare cost-control based on global budget: a survey of 110 clinicians in hospitals

BACKGROUND: The increasing cost on healthcare exposes China’s healthcare budgets and system to financial crisis. To control the excessive growth of healthcare expenditure, China’s healthcare reforms emphasize the control of the global budget for healthcare, which leads to the release of relevant policy and a series of cost-control actions implemented by different hospitals. This work aims to identify the effects brought by the cost-control policy and actions via surveying and analysing feedback from clinicians. METHODS: Questionnaires on the cost-control policy and actions were designed for surveying 110 clinicians in hospitals from different regions of China. The data on the implementation of the cost-control actions and doctors’ feedback on these actions were analysed using descriptive statistics. Pearson’s chi-squared tests were performed to detect associations between doctors’ opinions and specific cost-control actions. A value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Association relationships between doctors’ opinions and cost-control actions were modelled into network models, and key factors were identified in a multi-variate framework. Last, we visualized our resultant data using a network model, and further multi-variate analysis was performed. RESULTS: There were three main findings. (1) The cost-control policy has been widely implemented in the sampled hospitals in different regions of China, with more than 80% of those surveyed acknowledging that their hospitals take actions of reducing average prescription fees for outpatients, drug costs, and in-hospitalization durations. (2) Most doctors have a negative view of some cost-control actions; this is mainly due to concerns about the effects of these actions on the doctors’ own healthcare performance and patient satisfaction. (3) Cost-control actions that had a significant impact on doctors’ performance included limiting average prescription fees for outpatients and limiting the use of examinations/drugs/surgeries. Decreased patient satisfaction was associated with fewer admissions of critically ill patients, reduced use of brand-name drugs, and increased total costs to patients due to increased frequencies of visits to the hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Cost-control actions implemented in hospitals in response to the government’s policy to reduce its national healthcare budget affect both doctors and patients in several ways. Moreover, the cost-control policy and actions can be improved. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-3921-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.