Coronary
Interventions Rise By 51% In Just One Year: Study
Cath-labs and
coronary interventions in India are increasing exponentially, adding
substantially to
healthcare expenses. While cath-labs have more than doubled in the
last five years, from 251 in
2010 to 630 in 2015, coronary interventions rose 51%
within a year, between 2014 and
2015, a new study by a think tank shows.
Increased
interventions have resulted in a higher number of stents being used in
procedures.The data shows
4,75,000 stents were used in 2015 for 3,75,000 coronary
interventions. The figures stand out as
just 1,46,719 stents were used in 1,17,420
cardiac interventions in 2010. A paper published by
Observer Research Foundation
(ORF), based on analysis of data from different sources,
highlights the potential role of
price control in keeping health care costs in check. Acknowledging
stent price capping is
a significant step by the government, it suggests India needs greater
transparency in
costing systems, out come based measurements and evidence-based
policy-making.
Authored by Ramesh
Bhat, former professor at IIM Ahmedabad and president of the Indian
Health Economics and
Policy Association, and Denny John, Evidence Synthesis Specialist at
Campbell Collaboration,
the study says any analysis of the implications of economic
regulations,
including price controls, will need a detailed appreciation of market forces.
Cardiovascular
diseases are now the leading cause of mortality in India, with a quarter of all
deaths in 2015
attributed to the disease. According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD)
2015 study , death
rate due to heart diseases in the country stood at 272 per 100,000
population. Even with
such figures, the paper suggests, cardiovascular diseases in India
remain highly
under-diagnosed though the number of coronary interventions like angioplasty
are growing every
year.
Moreover, the
findings show, the use of expensive high-end drug eluting stents (DES) has
also gone up
contributing to the increasing healthcare costs. According to the paper, the
share
of DES in the total
use of stents has reported a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of
53.52% between 2002
to 2015, whereas total stent usage has grown by 22.86% in the same
period.
It also highlighted
the sources of financing of coronary procedures in India, which has a great
deal of impact on
household expenditures as majority of it is still borne out-of-pocket. The
findings show over
43.9% of the financing of the coronary procedures in 2014 were
conducted through
out-ofpocket expenditure. Analysis of the NSSO 71st round done in the
paper also show that
one-fifth of hospitalisations due to CVD were paid for by borrowings or
sale of personal
assets. The same survey found that 53% of the population suffered from
`catastrophic' health
expenditures.
The study says
severity of penalty is essential to price control and in determining
compliance.
Besides, the
government or the regulator will also need to create an ecosystem to ensure
effectiveness of such
regulation.
Advocating for more
effective monitoring of quality of medical products, the paper says,
“Given the fact that
currently the market for medical devices is poorly regulated, and there is
no formal system to
monitor quality of care, price control could have a negative impact in
terms of entry of
inferior quality and outdated products in market“.
The paper recommends
setting up of a Medical Technology Assessment Board (MTAB) to
initiate evidence based
health policy process.
Source: The
Times of India
No comments:
Post a Comment