Comparison of fuzzy-based MCDM and non-fuzzy MCDM in setting a new fee schedule for orthopedic procedures in Taiwan's national health insurance program

Among numerous approaches and techniques documented in the literature for setting fee schedule, the most frequently adopted approach is experts' opinions. Regrettably, these various methods reach qualitative conclusions mainly. Such a deficiency brings great difficulties in quantifying and summarizing practical for setting a fee schedule. To mitigate these weaknesses, in this paper, we for the first time propose a fuzzy-based multiple criteria decision-making (FMCDM) in setting a new fee schedule for orthopedic procedures in a national health insurance program. For comparison purpose, same set of data were also repeated on the non-fuzzy method. The results from the illustrative case show that the new fee schedule as obtained from applying the FMCDM model is much more convincing to practitioners than that of previous schedule. It is also more persuasive as references for policy making. In addition, it has one major advantage over the traditional non-fuzzy based counterpart. The method eliminated the occurrences of bitter argument that frequently lead to undesirable halting of discussion among experts and thus the progress of the fee-setting project.