The Effect of COVID-19 on Referral Time and Cost of Outpatient'S Services Amongst Insured of Iran Health Insurance, Fars, 2020

Background: This study aimed to investigate the effect of COVID-19 epidemic on the rate of referral and costs of outpatient services covered by Iran Health Insurance, Fars, Iran. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we used data registry system of Iran health insurance to compare cost of outpatient services and referral time after occurring COVID-19 epidemic with the same time before it. Extracted items included; outpatients’ and complementary services. Statistical analyses were performed with Graph Pad Prism software version 8.0, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney test. Results Costs paid for all outpatient and imaging services significantly decreased in 2020 compared to 2019. Also, the number of prescriptions in all outpatient services has significantly decreased, while the number of imaging diagnostic tests significantly increased. Conclusion Further studies are recommended to evaluate whether the reduction in cost of services and referral times are due to underutilization of services or not.