Panagiotis Petrou1,2. 1. Health Care Management Programme, Open University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus. p.petrou@gesy.org.cy. 2. Health Insurance Organization, Nicosia, Cyprus. p.petrou@gesy.org.cy.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: A co-payment fee of EUR10 was introduced in Cyprus, in order to cope with overcrowding of emergency room services. The scope of this paper is the assessment of the short-term impact of this measure. METHODS: We used an interrupted time-series autoregressive integrated moving average model, and we analyzed official data from Cyprus' largest emergency room facility for three years. RESULTS: Co-payment is associated with a 16% statistically significant reduction of emergency room visits. No impact was observed in categories of teenagers, children, infants, and people over 70 years old. CONCLUSIONS: Co-payment was proven to be effective in Cyprus' emergency room setting and is expected to lessen congestion in the emergency room. The price insensitivity of people aged over 70 years, teenagers, children and infants, merits additional research for the identification of the underlying reasons.
INTRODUCTION: A co-payment fee of EUR10 was introduced in Cyprus, in order to cope with overcrowding of emergency room services. The scope of this paper is the assessment of the short-term impact of this measure. METHODS: We used an interrupted time-series autoregressive integrated moving average model, and we analyzed official data from Cyprus' largest emergency room facility for three years. RESULTS: Co-payment is associated with a 16% statistically significant reduction of emergency room visits. No impact was observed in categories of teenagers, children, infants, and people over 70 years old. CONCLUSIONS: Co-payment was proven to be effective in Cyprus' emergency room setting and is expected to lessen congestion in the emergency room. The price insensitivity of people aged over 70 years, teenagers, children and infants, merits additional research for the identification of the underlying reasons.