Event-level panel data based health policy evaluation

Building on our earlier work, we apply the advanced methods of panel data econometrics to the large and detailed linked event-level multi-year administrative data sets on ambulatory and hospital care collected and maintained by the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund (OEP). We look at three areas of research which have not been sufficiently addressed in Hungary: (1) access to ambulatory care, (2) quota limits (or budget caps) in the state financing of inpatient care, and (3) the special fields of psychiatry/addictology. All of these areas are of interest for both health economics researchers and Hungarian policy makers: strengthening outpatient care services has been a central element of recent structural changes, and capacity allocation of inpatient care is an ongoing issue. Moreover, carrying out all three of them might, we hope, contribute to switching the attention of the Hungarian evidence-based health policy community from analysis based on aggregate- and semi-aggregate data to expecting research to be based, whenever possible, on event-level data like ours.

The Budapest Institute carries out this research project with the support of the National Research, Development and Innovation in collaboration with colleagues at ELTE and Corvinus University.