AUTHOR=Cui Yueying , Wang Xi , Cheng Jiu , Wang Yifei , Yang Huimin , Feng Ruihua 

TITLE=Impact of the health insurance deregulation policy for cross-regional healthcare on hospitalization visits and expenses of patients with ischemic heart disease: an interrupted time series analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1609842

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2025.1609842

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=BackgroundThe health insurance deregulation policy aimed to enhance healthcare accessibility by eliminating intra-provincial administrative hurdles. However, its impact on hospitalization patterns of high-burden chronic conditions like ischemic heart disease (IHD) remains unexamined.MethodsInterrupted time-series analysis (ITSA) was employed to evaluate weekly hospitalization visits and expenses for 8,522 IHD inpatients across three Hebei counties (January 2021–July 2023). Models assessed immediate and longitudinal changes post-policy, adjusting for autocorrelation and seasonal trends.ResultsPolicy implementation triggered an immediate 20.27 surge in weekly hospitalizations (p = 0.006), with sustained utilization unaffected (β3 = 0.17, p = 0.619). Per-visit hospitalization expenses maintained pre-deregulation policy declining trends (−126.71 CNY/week pre-policy vs. −32.04 CNY/week post-policy), despite a non-significant instantaneously increase by 478.43 (p = 0.723) in the first week following the implementation of this policy. Additionally, the health insurance deregulation policy reversed the weekly trend of insurance reimbursement costs per visit from decreasing (−81.98 CNY/week) to increasing trajectories (1.95 CNY/week, p = 0.004).ConclusionThe health insurance deregulation policy successfully expanded IHD care access without exacerbating financial burdens, demonstrating that administrative simplification can coexist with cost containment under concurrent payment reforms.