Do medical records outsourcing affect insurance deductions? An Interrupted time series in Qazvin’s trauma center

The reform in medical records processes is recognized as one of the effective measures implemented for reducing insurance deductions. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of outsourcing the medical records unit on the insurance deductions in Qazvin Trauma Center within 2013-2018.

The present study was a descriptive and analytical study which was conducted in Qazvin Trauma Center. The intervention variable was the performance of the outsourcing plan in the medical records unit. Changes in the level and trend of basic insurance deductions before and after outsourcing were at the significance level of 0.05 using the independent t-test and segmented regression model in Stata software (version15).

The percentages of deductions before and after performing the outsourcing contract were measured at 0.038±0.112 and 0.194±0.068 for the health insurance (P <0.001), respectively. These values were reported as 0.077±0.028 and 0.031±0.126 for the social security insurance (P<0.001), respectively, and they were obtained at 0.105±0.060 and 0.124±0.087 for the armed forces insurance (P=0.369), respectively. Finally, for the relief committee insurance, these percentages were reported as 0.154±0.078 and 0.183±0.080 (P=0.209), respectively.

As evidenced by the obtained results, the level of y-intercept increased in all observations after outsourcing. Therefore, it can be concluded that outsourcing the services of the records unit did not directly affect the insurance deductions and the insurance deductions can be attributed to some other reasons, apart from the outsourced tasks.