隨著老年人口的增加以及少子化的緣故，我國長期照顧服務之潛在需求者越來越多，因此建立良好的服務輸送體系成為目前很重要的課題。而長期照顧機構提供服務是否能形成良好的輸送體系，有部分應與相關制度之規範有關，如支付制度是否適切地反映機構之照護成本，因此在制定相關制度前，應從供給面來探討機構經營概況，如此制度才能真實反映產業供給面情形。參考國外文獻，可以發現從機構之生產成本函數，可延伸許多值得探討之議題，如從平均成本與服務量之間的變動可估計最適經營規模等，透過機構成本資料反映機構與產業之現況，可提出未來政府相關政策之建議，以政策來改善或調整機構之經營情況，更進一步可由成本函數估計每人日之照護成本，並以之作為制定支付制度之參考。 然國內目前並未有長期照顧服務相關之統計資料，機構成本較難取得，因此目前國內鮮少有針對機構成本做相關經濟分析之文獻，本研究參考過去國外研究長期照顧機構成本之文獻，整理出研究機構成本應蒐集之資料，以及成本函數中各變數背後隱含之政策意義，提供未來相關研究者參考。 ;Since 1994, Taiwan has been facing population ageing. Within these 20 years, the country continuously aging rapidly and causing the growth of disabled elderly who demands long-term care. Therefore, to establish the integral long-term care system has been the hot issue in Taiwan recently. In the past few years, our government drew up several policies about long-term care service and long-term care facilities to intergrate the original dispersible system. The topic of the policy drawing up recently is the development of payment system and establishment of social insurance system of long-term care services. Before developing the payment system, there’s necessity to examine the costs of facitlities, for purpose of determining how much should be paid to the facility for taking care of one patient. Also, to examine the cost function of facility helps us to understand the behavior of facility under current policy. Then the government could make more appropriate policy for the long-term care industry. However, due to the difficaulty of getting the costs information of facilities, there’s still few literature about examining cost function of facilities in Taiwan. This study reviews the foreign literature about the method of examing costs of long-term care facilities and generalizes these methods. The application of these methods in costs study would help us doing relevant research and improve the long-term care industry in Taiwan.
