An Empirical Study on the Role of Cashless Health Insurance in Influencing TreatmentSeeking Behaviour toward Private Healthcare Institutions

Abstract

Healthcare financing and access patterns have changed dramatically in India as a result of the growth of the cashless health insurance programs. The paper is an empirical research on how cashless health insurance has affected the treatment seeking behaviour in relation to the private healthcare institutions. Quantitative, descriptive research design was used and the respondents were asked to fill in a structured questionnaire consisting of 200 respondents with the help of a five-point Likert scale. The mean score analysis, descriptive statistics, and analysis of cross-tabulation were used to check the association between insurance status and hospital preference. It is observed that 76.7 percent of insured respondents had more preference to private hospitals as opposed to 37.5 percent of non-insured patients, and this behavioural change is significant. The average scores of resource variables (greater than 3.70) confirm that decrease of the financial burden, perceived quality of service, and accessibility of facilities are principal determinants that affect the utilization of the privatized hospitals. The paper concludes by noting that cashless insurance empanelment has been proven to greatly channel the patient flow in favor of the private health care provider in case, however, long term regulatory controls are necessary to make sure of financial security and quality of services. The findings offer insights that are policy-relevant towards the improvement of designing and implementing of public-funded health insurance schemes.