title: Relative importance of attributes of drug benefit plans: Thai civil servants' perspective.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The drug benefit plan of Thailand's Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS) must be amended to control increasing costs; to that end, it is important to gather the views of beneficiaries before making changes to the benefit plan.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relative importance of attributes of drug benefit plans from the perspective of CSMBS beneficiaries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Attributes and levels adopted from focus group discussions and a preliminary survey were used to develop a questionnaire concerning hypothetical drug benefit plans. A convenience sample of 650 CSMBS beneficiaries in Songkhla province was asked to rate the drug benefit plans. To determine the beneficiaries' decision models, judgment analysis was used. Policy-capturing analysis was used to examine the beneficiaries' preferences, and cluster analysis was conducted to explore the variability among judgment plans. Judgment policy insight was also examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results of the study showed that the beneficiaries weighed on cost-sharing as their most important attribute. The results remained unchanged, although only data from the beneficiaries who used the compensatory model were analyzed. The results of the cluster analysis showed that the largest cluster of beneficiaries weighed mostly on the cost-sharing attribute. The judgment policy insight results not only supported the finding that most beneficiaries focused on the cost-sharing attribute but also revealed that they might have the least understanding of how the formulary attribute affected beneficiaries' decision making.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cost-sharing was the most important attribute for the CSMBS beneficiaries. This study indicated that a possible preferred drug benefit plan should have no cost-sharing, permit access only to drugs listed in a closed formulary, allow beneficiaries to obtain 3 months of drugs, and allow them to obtain drugs from either a community pharmacy or a government hospital.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy Administration, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Hat-Yai, Songkhla 90110, Thailand. Electronic address: surachat.n@psu.ac.th.
authors.forename: Surachat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ngorsuraches
authors.forename: Tanatape
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wanishayakorn
authors.forename: Pimwara
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tanvejsilp
authors.forename: Siripa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Udomaksorn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017047:Cost Sharing; D005260:Female; D005569:Formularies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013785:Thailand
keywords: Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme; Drug benefit plan; Judgment analysis; Policy-capturing analysis; Relative importance