Effects of global budgeting on the distribution of dentists and use of dental care in Taiwan.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the effects of global budgeting on the distribution of dentists and the use and cost of dental care in Taiwan.


METHODS
(1) Monthly dental claim data from January 1996 to December 2001 for the entire insured population in Taiwan. (2) The 1996-2001 population information for the cities, counties and townships in Taiwan, abstracted from the Taiwan-Fukien Demographic Fact Book.


METHODS
Longitudinal, using the autocorrelation model.


RESULTS
Results indicated decline in dental care utilization, particularly after the implementation of dental global budgeting. With few exceptions, dental global budgeting did not improve the distribution of dental care and dentist supply.


CONCLUSIONS
The experience of the dental global budget program in Taiwan suggested that dental global budgeting might contain dental care utilization and that several conditions might have to be met in order for the reimbursement system to have effective redistributive impact on dental care and dentist supply.
Hsueh
Ya-Seng A
YS
Lee
Shoou-Yih D
SY
Huang
Yu-Tung A
YT
D002017:Budgets; D003752:Dental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003815:Dentists / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D013624:Taiwan