Title: Application of fuzzy MCDM to establishing a new fee schedule for orthopaedic procedures in a National Health Insurance program

Authors: Chih-Young Hung, Yuan-Huei Huang, Pei-Yeh Chang, Kuei-Ing Wang, King-Jen Chang

Addresses: Institute of Management of Technology, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta-Hsueh Rd., Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan, ROC. ' Department of Surgery, Hsin-Chu General Hospital, 2F., No. 25, Lane 442, Sec. 1, Jingguo Rd., Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, ROC. ' Department of Pediatric Surgery, Chang Gung University, College of Medicine, No. 7, Fu-Hsing Street, Kweishan, Taoyuan, 333, Taiwan, ROC. ' Department of Information Management, Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology, 1, Hsin-Hsin Rd., Hsinfeng, Hsinchu, 304, Taiwan, ROC. ' Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, No. 7, Chung San South Road, Taipei, 100, Taiwan, ROC

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to construct a model for establishing a new, rational fee schedule for orthopaedic procedures in a National Health Insurance (NHI) program. A Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (FMCDM) model is proposed. The relative value of 12 orthopaedic procedures was obtained through an empirical study based on the FMCDM model. In the FMCDM model, under the goal of setting a ||new fee schedule for orthopaedic procedures||, there are four aspects in the first tier of evaluation factors, 16 criteria in the second tier and 12 orthopaedic procedures in the third tier. The new fee schedule obtained from the FMCDM model is more convincing than previous schedule and more persuasive to the references for the policy setting.

Keywords: fee schedules; orthopaedic procedures; National Health Insurance; NHI; fuzzy MCDM; multicriteria decision making; FMCDM; healthcare.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2008.019359

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2008 Vol.9 No.4, pp.334 - 349

Published online: 09 Jul 2008 *

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