Abstract: Using the data of 2010 to 2014 from Huainan Municipal Health Bureau, we investigate the factors that affect the actual inpatient reimbursement rate under the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS), and further analyze the factors affecting the choice of different levels of medical institutions. The result shows that factors affecting the NRCMS actual inpatient reimbursement rates are mainly years, hospital levels, population attributes. Specifically, the actual reimbursement rate increases with time and decreases with higher level facilities. Besides, the rate of lower income population and disabled people is higher than ordinary agricultural residents. In terms of medical facility choice, age, gender and disease degree have significant influences. While population of different attributes does not show obvious preferences except for househo lds enjoying five guarantees. Accordingly, this paper concludes that the NRCMS plays a reasonable role, measured by hospital compensation ratio, in guiding the choices of the medical institution and taking care of the poor and other disadvantaged groups. However, the needs of the patients are too large in all grade hospitals in the city and the uneven distribution of medical resources still persists, which needs to be further improved.

Key words: NRCMS, actual inpatient reimbursement rate, population attributes, medical facility choice