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Article History

Received: 6 September 2024

Accepted: 1 December 2025

First Online: 24 December 2025

Declarations

:

: Not applicable. This study analyzed a fully anonymized and aggregated dataset of patient payment records provided by the hospital’s administrative department. All personal identifiers were permanently removed from the data prior to analysis, and it was impossible to identify any individual from the information available to the researchers. No ethical approval was required for this study by the authors’ institution, because this manuscript does not involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.