Out-of-pocket payments in hospital bills: a challenge to management

ABSTRACT Objetive: To analyse out-of-pocket payments (OOP) by health insurance company in hospital bills. Method: Cross-sectional study with quantitative approach. The information was obtained in the database of a health insurance company in the north of Paraná State and categorised into administrative and technical OOP. We analysed reports regarding OOP made in eight hospitals of the accredited network company, from 2013 to 2015. Results: The analysed data totalled 36 thousand items paid out-of-pocket. The highest OOP rates occurred in hospital 1 (67.6%); emergency room service (50.1%); time of hospitalization, ≤ 1 day (70.8%) and medical-hospital materials (59.2%). The year with the highest rates of administrative (54.51%) and technical (48.05%) OOP was 2013. Conclusion: We concluded that OOP are indicators for the institutions to check the critical topics to be improved and that managers must work on originator aspects of OOP, to prevent greater loss.