Payment of Medical Invoices by Inpatients at the Mangobo General Referral Hospital in Kisangani (DR Congo) from 2016 to 2020

Abstract

Introduction: The study looked at the problem of payment of healthcare bills by hospital patients. It was conducted at the Mangobo General Referral Hospital in Kisangani (DR Congo) during the period from 2016 to 2020. It aimed to identify the proportion of medical bills paid and not paid by inpatients.  Methodology: This study was carried out using an inductive method based on documentary analysis. We used the general trend technique, which concerned all the medical bills paid and not paid by patients hospitalised at the Mangobo General Referral Hospital. Results: The total amounts of paid and unpaid medical care bills were respectively US$15, 250,500.92 and US$17,200.00 with a proportion of 99.89% for the former, against 0.11% for the latter. All the amounts of the paid and unpaid health care bills had an upward trend. The study provides hospital managers with an overview of the inpatient bill recovery mechanism. It also constitutes a plea to the political and health authorities to make health care accessible to the population.