Institute for Health Insurance, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pécs, Mária u. 5-7, 7621, Pécs, Hungary.
Eur J Health Econ. 2014 May;15 Suppl 1:S131-5. doi: 10.1007/s10198-014-0601-9. Epub 2014 May 16.
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 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.
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).
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.
匈牙利有四种主要的长期护理（LTC）方式：日间护理、护理、慢性病护理和康复。本研究旨在探讨匈牙利的 LTC 融资情况，特别关注类风湿关节炎（RA）患者。
数据来自国家健康保险基金管理局（NHIFA）。我们分析了 2012 年的以下指标：患者和病例数量、未加权和加权住院天数以及医疗保险支出。
2012 年，匈牙利 LTC 的年医疗保险支出为 1.126 亿欧元，覆盖了 20.9 万名患者（22.5 万例）。NHIFA 为 976 名 RA 患者的 LTC 支出了 0.69 万欧元。RA 患者的年人均医疗保险费用（710 欧元）明显高于所有患者的平均费用（538 欧元），高出 32%。RA 患者的平均住院天数也高于一般 LTC 人群（19.7 天）。
RA 患者的 LTC 成本高于一般 LTC 患者人群的平均成本。早期治疗 RA 患者可有助于降低 LTC 支出。更广泛地说，卫生技术评估可以通过更加强调 LTC 的利用和成本，为中东欧国家的未来 LTC 融资辩论提供信息。
