{"title":"Telehealth Consultation for Malaysian Citizens' Willingness to Pay Assessed by the Double-Bounded Dichotomous Choice Method.","authors":"Tan Mey Mey, Katsuhiko Ogasawara","doi":"10.21315/mjms2024.31.1.8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Re-envisioning healthcare in technology tools includes robust utilisation of telehealth, improvement in access, quality, care efficiencies and cost-effectiveness of healthcare services. In reality, the technology's potential to transform healthcare may be limited by the ability to pay for it. This study aims to estimate Malaysian citizens' willingness to pay (WTP) for telehealth consultations and determine the factors contributing to it. This is vital to inform decision-making about expansion, preferences and deployment of a pricing strategy for telehealth services.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A random sample of 220 adult Malaysians was surveyed using social network services (SNS). Three different WTP bid arrays were identified and each respondent received a randomly drawn bid price. The WTP fee for using the telehealth consultation for 30 min was measured and estimated using a Double-Bounded Dichotomous Choice (DBDC) and the Random Utility Logit Model.</p><p><strong>Result: </strong>The median WTP was estimated to be RM58 (JPY2,198), RM78 (JPY2,956) for 132 respondents' willingness to use telehealth consultation and RM26 (JPY985) for 51 respondents who were unwilling. Further analysis found that WTP is correlated with the perception and willingness of the respondents to use it.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Despite most respondents being willing to pay for telehealth consultations, sociodemographic characteristics and affordability influenced the process of making decisions about WTP for telehealth consultation. This finding suggests that the private sector can play a crucial role in the deployment of telehealth. However, there may be a need to consider affordability and how to increase access and use of telehealth services.</p>","PeriodicalId":47388,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10917602/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.21315/mjms2024.31.1.8","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/2/28 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
Background: Re-envisioning healthcare in technology tools includes robust utilisation of telehealth, improvement in access, quality, care efficiencies and cost-effectiveness of healthcare services. In reality, the technology's potential to transform healthcare may be limited by the ability to pay for it. This study aims to estimate Malaysian citizens' willingness to pay (WTP) for telehealth consultations and determine the factors contributing to it. This is vital to inform decision-making about expansion, preferences and deployment of a pricing strategy for telehealth services.
Methods: A random sample of 220 adult Malaysians was surveyed using social network services (SNS). Three different WTP bid arrays were identified and each respondent received a randomly drawn bid price. The WTP fee for using the telehealth consultation for 30 min was measured and estimated using a Double-Bounded Dichotomous Choice (DBDC) and the Random Utility Logit Model.
Result: The median WTP was estimated to be RM58 (JPY2,198), RM78 (JPY2,956) for 132 respondents' willingness to use telehealth consultation and RM26 (JPY985) for 51 respondents who were unwilling. Further analysis found that WTP is correlated with the perception and willingness of the respondents to use it.
Conclusion: Despite most respondents being willing to pay for telehealth consultations, sociodemographic characteristics and affordability influenced the process of making decisions about WTP for telehealth consultation. This finding suggests that the private sector can play a crucial role in the deployment of telehealth. However, there may be a need to consider affordability and how to increase access and use of telehealth services.
期刊介绍：
The Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences (MJMS) is a peer-reviewed, open-access, fully online journal that is published at least six times a year. The journal’s scope encompasses all aspects of medical sciences including biomedical, allied health, clinical and social sciences. We accept high quality papers from basic to translational research especially from low & middle income countries, as classified by the United Nations & World Bank (https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/ articles/906519), with the aim that published research will benefit back the bottom billion population from these countries. Manuscripts submitted from developed or high income countries to MJMS must contain data and information that will benefit the socio-health and bio-medical sciences of these low and middle income countries. The MJMS editorial board consists of internationally regarded clinicians and scientists from low and middle income countries.
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