In 2020, China launched an innovative case-based payment method under the regional global budget called the diagnosis-intervention packet (DIP) payment. This study aims to explore changes in inpatient care provision in secondary and tertiary hospitals after the DIP payment reform in a pilot city, Shandong province.
Findings show that after the implementation of DIP payment, the inpatient medical costs per case and the proportion of the out-of-pocket expenditure in inpatient medical costs significantly decreased in both tertiary and secondary hospitals. While the average length of stay for inpatient care in secondary hospital significantly increased. The study implies that DIP payment could control inpatient medical costs and improved the rational allocation of the regional healthcare resources.
