Análise de custo de um programa de prevenção de internação para idosos no ambiente da saúde suplementar

Abstract

This thesis is a cost analysis study of a health care program for the elderly (individuals over 65 years old) in the context of a private health care organization. The program is designed for individuals at risk of hospitalization according to a screening questionnaire. Elders at risk are invited to participate in the health care Program, when there is an outcome of two groups: one which accepts the Program (and it is called grupo Bem Viver, named after the Program) and one which refuses to participate (and it is called grupo Recusa). The Program intervention is a home delivery health system developed by a multidisciplinary health team. The Program s follow up is developed according to a stratification score defined by a functional assessment. This process creates five distinguished groups, called functional groups . Elderly who refused to participate in the Program remain under usual care. This cost analysis is a partial economical evaluation as it establishes the comparison of the health care costs of the two groups of elderly: one under the intervention, grupo Bem Viver (N=627) and other under usual care, grupo Recusa (N=392). This analysis looked at the 12 months period before and after the event (either acceptance or refusal of the health care Program). Health care costs considered were consultations, tests, out of hospital medical procedures and hospitalizations during the period. The Program s costs were also included for final analysis. The two groups were analyzed within the period of comparison defining patterns in the health care costs. The health care costs were discriminated for the functional groups as well. Results show that there was a high percentage of elders with functional dependence for the intervention group, suggesting that there was a differential selection, when high risk individuals accepted the Program. For those under the Program intervention there was an increase costs for health care services as far as consultations, tests and out of hospital medical procedures. There was a decrease of the unitary costs of hospitalization. For the group which refused the intervention, it was found a discrete increase of health care costs for consultations, tests and out of hospital medical procedures. However, an important percentage of increase of hospital costs (+40.2% for hospital costs and + 34.3% for medical consultation costs at the hospital) was presented. As far as hospital care is concerned, this result was confirmed when applying a statistics of logarithmic transformation, with the usage of the inverse function. In the final analysis, when the costs of the Program itself were included, it was presented a hypothesis for the evaluation of the Bem Viver group, without the Program s intervention. In that way, a projection was presented for the group under intervention from the perspective of the group who refused the Program.