ICU-related Out of Pocket Expenses (ICOPE)

Out of pocket cost per patient episode until ICU discharge

Costs per complete patient episode, as actually spent in US dollars and International dollars (purchasing power parity exchange rate) in ventilated versus non-ventilated groups. OOPE is defined as the cost incurred by individuals or households at the time of receiving any healthcare services in the ICU, including the component of cost-sharing (the part not covered by a third party like, an insurer) and informal payments (e.g., tips and under-the-table payments), but excluding insurance premiums and any reimbursements from the third-party payers (e.g., the government, a health insurance fund or a private insurance company).

Relative risk of CHE

Relative risk of catastrophic health expenditure for ventilated versus non-ventilated groups

Risk factors for CHE

The following potential risk factors for CHE will be investigated: household income status, patient occupation; marital status; religion; access to safe water; educational status; ownership and location of households (urban vs. rural vs. slum); female-headed households; female-headed households; household size and age/gender of members; geographical location.

Frequency of different coping strategies

Coping strategies are defined as Any mechanisms for OOPE coverage by patient or family member, including: * Savings: own income. * Medical debt: defined as personal debt derived from healthcare expenditures or paying for medical OOPE by borrowing money from friends or family, institutional loans (banks, etc) or non institutional loans (borrowing from black market). * selling of personal property * limitation to procurement of medical services or drugs * other

Proportion of direct medical versus direct non-medical costs in the total OOPEs

Direct costs are expressed as expenditure during ICU treatment by households and consist of two main categories: direct medical cost and direct non-medical cost. Direct medical costs referring to direct payments made by individuals to healthcare providers at the time of service use. These include those costs that are consumed for healthcare resources during ICU care. These exclude any prepayment for health services, for example in the form of taxes or specific insurance premiums or contributions and where possible, net of any reimbursement to the individual who made the payments. Direct non-medical costs includes transportation, lodging, food items, informal payments and tips, payments incurred by caregivers and family for helping the patients during treatment.

Patient family socio-economic status (SES) or income

Annual income refers to the total amount of money earned by a household over the course of a year (i,.e. last 12 months preceding this survey time). This income can come from various sources, such as salary or wages from employment, profits from a business, rental income, investment income, land, or any other source of income received over the course of a year.

Paying structures

Paying structures and models by country