The study is a descriptive study to obtain data and information on (l) average cost that should be paid for in-patient care (including related expenses such as laboratory service, drugs, etc) of district public general hospital and the sufficiency of government subsidy for poor families, and (2) scenarios ofprice discrimination that can be applied in district public general hospital for the hospital to reach the cost recovery while improving services for poorfamilies.
Results of the study showed that the average cost of in-patient care, including related expenses is Rp. 169.000 per-person per-day. Since the government subsidy for poor families is only Rp 14.000 per-person per-day, it is understandable that many district public general hospitals are suffering from annual deficit. If the hospitals should reach the cost recovery, the government subsidy for poor families should be increased. Or, the district government should contribute significantly in subsidizing their poor families. For this to be realized, the hospital management should advocate the local government effectively.
While waitingfor the government subsidy to increase, the hospital management can apply price discrimination policy. There are three kinds ofprice discriminations, i.e. level one, level two, and level three. Level one ofprice discrimination in fact does not exist in the real world, while level two can only be applied for measurable products such as telephone calls (minute), water service (gallon), etc. Hospitals, however, can practice level three ofprice discrimination.
The study offered a formula for price discrimination and three scenarios (simulations). According to the scenarios, the hospitals can reach the cost recovery while improving services for poor families if hospital service price for higher income families is increased 60-80 percent. 1b retain the higher income families, the hospitals should increase social marketing activities, improve the quality of services, and refine the image of public general hospitals.