The Claim Database in Japan

Abstract

Based on the Fee-For-Service tariff system, Japan has developed the National Database (NDB) that registers all health care insurance claims. Compared with the similar databases of other countries, NDB has more detailed data, i.e., insurer’s code, insured ID number, diagnoses, age, sex, date of consultation for out-patient service, date of admission, date of discharge, procedures and drugs provided with information of date, volume and tariff. Annually more than 1,700 million records are registered into NDB. In this article, the authors will explain the detail of NDB and its future.