IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i24p16447-d996974.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Healthcare Services for Undocumented Migrants: Organisation and Costs from the Italian NHS Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabetta Listorti

    (Centre for Healthcare and Social Care Management (CERGAS), SDA Bocconi, 20136 Milan, Italy)

  • Aleksandra Torbica

    (Centre for Healthcare and Social Care Management (CERGAS), SDA Bocconi, 20136 Milan, Italy)

  • Silvano G. Cella

    (Laboratory of Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, via Vanvitelli 32, 20129 Milan, Italy
    National Centre for Healthcare Research and Pharmacoepidemiology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy)

  • Gianfrancesco Fiorini

    (Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy)

  • Giovanni Corrao

    (National Centre for Healthcare Research and Pharmacoepidemiology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
    Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy)

  • Matteo Franchi

    (National Centre for Healthcare Research and Pharmacoepidemiology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
    Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

Based on the principle of health equity, the Italian National Health Service is known worldwide for being a universalistic system that guarantees healthcare services for all its population, among which there are undocumented migrants. A commitment for their health needs is further motivated by their lower utilisation rates of healthcare services, which becomes even more crucial when considering chronic conditions such as diabetes that require adherence and continuity of care. However, the need for more official data has resulted in little research documenting these healthcare usage patterns. For this reason, our objective has been to deepen, from the Italian NHS perspective, the quantity, costs, type, preventability and organisation of healthcare services directed to undocumented migrants. We used official healthcare data from the Lombardy Region, which enable the identification of people receiving the STP code (undocumented migrants) and of people with foreign citizenship (documented migrants). After quantifying the average annual amount and expenditure for healthcare services grouped by Italian citizens, documented migrants and undocumented migrants for all clinical conditions (quantity and costs), we performed three primary investigations where we enlightened differences between the three mentioned groups focusing on the diagnosis of diabetes: (i) mapping the types of healthcare services used and their characteristics (type); (ii) quantifying the impact of preventable hospital admissions (preventability); (iii) examining the healthcare patterns linking pharmaceutical prescriptions with hospital accesses (organisation). Our results reveal significant differences among the three groups, such as more urgent hospital admissions, more preventable complications, and a higher recurrence in terms of access and costs to hospital services rather than pharmaceutical prescriptions for undocumented migrants. These findings can represent the leverage to raise awareness toward the emerging challenges of the migrant health burden.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabetta Listorti & Aleksandra Torbica & Silvano G. Cella & Gianfrancesco Fiorini & Giovanni Corrao & Matteo Franchi, 2022. "Healthcare Services for Undocumented Migrants: Organisation and Costs from the Italian NHS Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:24:p:16447-:d:996974
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/24/16447/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/24/16447/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mladovsky, Philipa & Rechel, Bernd & Ingleby, David & McKee, Martin, 2012. "Responding to diversity: An exploratory study of migrant health policies in Europe," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 1-9.
    2. Sara Barsanti, 2018. "Hospitalization among migrants in Italy: Access to health care as an opportunity for integration and inclusion," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 637-651, July.
    3. Pietro Ferrara, 2020. "Assessing the Economic Burden of Disease in Migrants: The Diabetes Case in Northern Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-2, March.
    4. Luciana Scalone & Giancarlo Cesana & Gianluca Furneri & Roberta Ciampichini & Paolo Beck-Peccoz & Virginio Chiodini & Silvia Mangioni & Emanuela Orsi & Carla Fornari & Lorenzo Giovanni Mantovani, 2014. "Burden of Diabetes Mellitus Estimated with a Longitudinal Population-Based Study Using Administrative Databases," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-11, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elisabetta Listorti & Aleksandra Torbica & Silvano G. Cella & Gianfrancesco Fiorini & Giovanni Corrao & Matteo Franchi, 2023. "A Cohort Study on Diabetic Undocumented Migrants in Italy: Can Charitable Organizations Contribute to Higher Adherence?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-12, February.
    2. D'Andreamatteo, Antonio & Neri, Francesca & Antonucci, Gianluca & Sargiacomo, Massimo, 2024. "Immigration, policies of integration and healthcare expenditure: A longitudinal analysis of the INHS (2002‒2018)," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schmidt, Henrike & Wild, Eva-Maria & Schreyögg, Jonas, 2021. "Explaining variation in health information seeking behaviour – Insights from a multilingual survey," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(5), pages 618-626.
    2. Leonardo Mammana & Chiara Milani & Paola Bordin & Lorenzo Paglione & Chiara Salvia, 2020. "Health System Response during the European Refugee Crisis: Policy and Practice Analysis in Four Italian Regions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-22, July.
    3. Maria Teresa Greco & Antonio Giampiero Russo, 2017. "Valutazione del modello CREG utilizzato dalla ATS della Citt? Metropolitana di Milano per la gestione delle malattie croniche nella medicina generale," MECOSAN, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(101), pages 31-50.
    4. Bettin, Giulia & Sacchi, Agnese, 2020. "Health spending in Italy: The impact of immigrants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Simone M Schneider, 2020. "Beyond endogeneity in analyses of public opinion: Evaluations of healthcare by the foreign born across 24 European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-20, June.
    6. Laura Spagnoli & Antoine Flahault & Pietro Ferrara, 2020. "Migrant Health Burden: Where Do We Stand?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-3, April.
    7. Elisabetta Listorti & Aleksandra Torbica & Silvano G. Cella & Gianfrancesco Fiorini & Giovanni Corrao & Matteo Franchi, 2023. "A Cohort Study on Diabetic Undocumented Migrants in Italy: Can Charitable Organizations Contribute to Higher Adherence?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-12, February.
    8. Simone M. Schneider & Camilla Devitt, 2018. "How do the Foreign-Born Rate Host Country Health Systems? Evidence from Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 49(1), pages 45-71.
    9. Nielsen, Maj Rørdam & Jervelund, Signe Smith, 2023. "Impacts of an interpretation fee on immigrants’ access to healthcare: Evidence from a Danish survey study among newly arrived immigrants," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    10. Vázquez, María Luisa & Terraza-Núñez, Rebeca & S-Hernández, Silvia & Vargas, Ingrid & Bosch, Lola & González, Andrea & Pequeño, Sandra & Cantos, Raquel & Martínez, Juan Ignacio & López, Luís Andrés, 2013. "Are migrants health policies aimed at improving access to quality healthcare? An analysis of Spanish policies," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 236-246.
    11. Sukhjeet Bains & Johanne Sundby & Benedikte V. Lindskog & Siri Vangen & Ingvil K. Sørbye, 2021. "Newly Arrived Migrant Women’s Experience of Maternity Health Information: A Face-to-Face Questionnaire Study in Norway," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-12, July.
    12. Jens Detollenaere & Stijn Baert & Sara Willems, 2018. "Association between cultural distance and migrant self-rated health," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(2), pages 257-266, March.
    13. Carla Wallimann & Andreas Balthasar, 2019. "Primary Care Networks and Eritrean Immigrants’ Experiences with Health Care Professionals in Switzerland: A Qualitative Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-12, July.
    14. Erwin Jiayuan Khoo, 2021. "Grasping the reality of health care access for migrants: An initial strategy to end social injustice," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1346-1348, July.
    15. Fiorella Pia Salvatore & Alessia Spada & Francesca Fortunato & Demetris Vrontis & Mariantonietta Fiore, 2021. "Identification of Health Expenditures Determinants: A Model to Manage the Economic Burden of Cardiovascular Disease," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-15, April.
    16. Yanwei Lin & Qi Zhang & Wen Chen & Jingrong Shi & Siqi Han & Xiaolei Song & Yong Xu & Li Ling, 2016. "Association between Social Integration and Health among Internal Migrants in ZhongShan, China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, February.
    17. Keygnaert, Ines & Guieu, Aurore & Ooms, Gorik & Vettenburg, Nicole & Temmerman, Marleen & Roelens, Kristien, 2014. "Sexual and reproductive health of migrants: Does the EU care?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 215-225.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:24:p:16447-:d:996974. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.