Cost-benefit of TDC intervention on NHI outstanding balance in Taiwan

Objective. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of telephone debt collection (TDC) intervention of NHI outstanding balance on the cost-benefit of NHI fee recovery in order to find methods to enhance NHI fee recovery rate and to reduce the cost of paper outstanding balance notice as a reference for government administration and management. Methods. Based on the experimentation, the experimental group (EG) and control group (CG) one-group intervention evaluation design was applied and statistical analysis was conducted. Results. The NHI fee recovery rates of the EG (with TDC intervention) and the CG (without TDC intervention) are 72.74% and 33.10% respectively; indicating the fee recovery rate with TDC intervention has increased by 39.64%. Conclusions. TDC intervention not only enhances the NHI fee recovery rate but also increases NHI fee incomes to ensure healthcare quality. Therefore, TDC is an effective method for outstanding balance prevention.