Cost-effectiveness: the case of home health care physician services in New Brunswick, Canada.
Home health care programs have direct and indirect effects within a health care system. A complete cost-benefit evaluation would include all such effects. A study of New Brunswick's Extra-Mural Hospital (EMH) home health care program used population-based administrative data on physician services utilization to examine whether home care services act indirectly as substitutes for physician services. Evidence suggests that the introduction and expansion of New Brunswick's EMH home health care program had unanticipated substitution effects, which reduced health system costs by reducing the rate of growth of per-capita utilization of physician services.
Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
M G
MG
Brown
D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002391:Catchment Area, Health / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007357:Insurance, Physician Services; D008297:Male; D009509:New Brunswick; D010820:Physicians / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D017678:Sex Distribution