Mothers' satisfaction with the cost of children's care: the role of practice settings and actual expenses.
This paper analyzes mothers' satisfaction with the cost of children's care in six widely-varying ambulatory settings: fee-for-service solo and group practices, a prepaid group, public clinics, hospital outpatient departments, and an emergency room. Data are from a household survey in Washington, DC and represent 638 children. Findings indicate significantly higher satisfaction with cost in public clinics than in solo practice, fee-for-service groups, and the emergency room, adjusting for patient characteristics, attitudes and financial coverage. In fee-for-service settings, both provider charges and out-of-pocket costs had a nonlinear relation to satisfaction with cost; to a point, increasing costs and charges were associated with decreasing satisfaction, but thereafter higher costs and charges appeared to lead, other things equal, to higher satisfaction. Out-of-pocket costs had a significantly greater negative effect on poor mothers' satisfaction than on the more affluent. Implications for current policy trends are discussed.
Dutton
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Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA 94305.
Gomby
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D
Meunier
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B
D001741:Black or African American; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000191:economics; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004219:District of Columbia; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics; D005251:Fees, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009035:Mothers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000191:economics; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000191:economics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors