Hospitals and clinicians pricing/fee variations between Regions and
Hospitals : Does it actually exist or just a suspicion
Abstract
Background/Objective: Compared to most of the South Asian
nations Sri Lanka enjoys commendable health outcomes. The Sri Lankan
health system is a combination of both private and public sectors. The
number of private health institutions have grown rapidly in recent
years. The aim of this study was to examine pricing/fees variations
across private healthcare sector in Sri Lanka. Method: This
study explored whether there are pricing/fees variations in hospitals
and clinician’s , across ten of the most commonly performed
surgical/medical procedures within eight leading private hospitals
distributed across three provinces in Sri Lanka. Results:
Findings revealed that the pricing/fees variations were statistically
significant (P <.001) across all eight hospitals and between
three provinces, for ten procedures tested for both hospital fees and
total fees. Pricing variations of the clinician’s fees were
statistically significant (P <.001) across all ten procedures,
except for one. Conclusion: Unilateral price/fees fixing by
private healthcare providers and the subsequent information asymmetry
could be the main reason for the significant pricing/fees variations
that exist between hospitals within and outside provinces/regions in
hospital and clinician’s fees. Policy makers can consider bench marking
the mean values of the prices/fees charged by the clinicians against the
national per capita income of the population to refine policy parameters
on pricing.