Healthcare management @ MSM: can more price information generate savings for Belgium’s health budget?

Mr. Stefaan Schatteman successfully defended his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) thesis on “Differences in perception of drug price-awareness and consciousness between physicians, patients and pharmacists in Belgium. Does Colour Coded Traffic Light price labelling reduce the gap?” at Maastricht School of Management (MSM) on 20 April 2015.

After completing his MBA Mr. Schatteman needed a new intellectual challenge which he found in the MSM DBA program. “The DBA helped me in getting a more profound understanding of one specific chosen topic of interest. The DBA has a significant impact on the way I think, and analyze problems. It helps me a lot in my day by day work and therefore I would recommend it to people who are looking for a nice challenge.”

Mr. Schattemans’ research focuses on the Belgian Social Security budget which is under pressure caused by the ageing of the population, like in many other countries. Saving measures to keep healthcare expenses under control have either partly or completely failed in achieving the saving targets set forward. Tools to obtain price information of drugs fail to provide the stakeholders with the appropriate information to make a more deliberate prescribing and buying decision. Expenses may be better managed with optimal drug-cost awareness.

In this research, differences in perception of drug cost-awareness between physicians, pharmacists and patients have been observed. The current price information on the packaging is not clear and does not enable stakeholders to make cost-effective choices. A new price indication using symbols has been examined and this seems to be promising. It may lead to a more judicious attitude amongst physicians, patients and pharmacists and in real life this could potentially lead to savings in the healthcare budget.