The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7247 p610
3 May 2003

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Austrian Health Institute: report (more)

Austrian outpatient fee scrapped

A fee for using hospital outpatient departments in Austria has failed to reduce patients' use of the departments and is to be scrapped.

In a new international report on patient co-payment fees, the Austrian Health Institute finds that the outpatient fee, introduced in April 2001, did not have the desired effect.

It says that this was due to insufficient provision of appropriate services in primary care. This included a lack of available specialists, inadequate opening hours for clinics and some treatments only being available through specialist outpatient departments.

The report, which is only available in German, also looks at co-payment models for outpatient care and medicines in seven European countries (including Britain) and the United States.

"Co-payment. International comparison and implications for Austria", Austrian Health Institute, Vienna (tel +43 1 51561/159, e-mail rosian@oebig.at). Price €30.