牙醫診所醫療物價指數建立之研究

Objectives: The main purpose of this paper is to establish the Dental Medical Economic Index (OMEI) to facilitate the implementation of global budget payment system of the National Health Insurance. Methods: The paper first surveys the dental clinics to determine their cost structure, as measured by the percentage of personnel, medicine, materials, office rent, equipment depreciation, and other costs to total cost. Then, the cost structure is matched by appropriate price indexes to construct the Dental Medical Economic Index. Results: We found that dentists' consul-tation fee is the main cost item of dental clinics (48.96%), followed by personnel cost (11.65%) and material cost (11.29%). Using 1996 as the base year, the 1997 and 1998 Dental Medical Economic Indexes are 103.70% and 108.93%, representing an annual increase rate of 3.74% and 5.00%, respectively. In addition, the most significant influencing the DMEI are material and den-tists' consultation fee (1.76% and 1.44%, respectively), Among various price indexes, wholesale price index of medical equipment is the most significant influencing the DMEI (2.59%). Conclu-sions: The establishment and continuous refinement of DMEI is crucial to the implementation of global budget payment system for dental clinics. The methodology discussed in this paper can be used to establish similar indexes for other types of clinics and hospitals in the future.