Analysis of the long-run effect of e-Health intervention on chronic diseases: A DID-PSM approach

This paper analyzes the long-term effect of e-Health which transmits health data of elderly residents at home to the remote health center and monitors their health. Data includes blood pressure, ECG, plus, etc. This paper aims to examine the long-term effect of e-Health on medical expenditures and treatment days based on the data of the e-Health project in Nishiaizu Town, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The method of analysis is to compare the above outcomes of two groups, namely users (treatment) and non-users (control) of e-Health. In this paper, the sample period is 2002-2010, and the number of samples is 91 of users and 118 of non-users. Since the long-term data contain time trends and PSM does not necessarily capture these problems, this study therefore uses difference-in-difference propensity score matching (DID-PSM). The DID-PSM estimatorcan take care of not only biases between two groups but also time trends. The paper demonstrates that e-Health users with longer usage experience tend to have smaller medical expenditures and treatment days related to chronic diseases. The paper provides a basis of reimbursement from medical insurance to telemedicine for further diffusion.