Health insurance literacy in the Netherlands: The translation and validation of the United States' Health Insurance Literacy Measure (HILM).

An important criterion for the proper functioning of a managed competition healthcare system, such as operates in the Netherlands, is that all citizens can make well-informed decisions regarding their health insurance policy. In order to achieve this, citizens need certain health insurance literacy skills. It is not known how far citizens in the Netherlands have these skills.

To what degree do patients actively choose their healthcare provider at the point of referral by their GP? A video observation study.

Background: Many countries in Europe have implemented managed competition and patient choice during the last decade. With the introduction of managed competition, health insurers also became an important stakeholder. They purchase services on behalf of their customers and are allowed to contract healthcare providers selectively.

Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients.

Background: Various north-western European health-care systems encourage patients to make an active choice of health-care provider. This study explores, qualitatively, patients' hospital selection processes and provides insight into the reasons why patients do or do not make active choices.

Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 142 patients in two departments of three Dutch hospitals.

Choosing your health insurance package: a method for measuring the public's preferences for changes in the national health insurance plan.

With rising healthcare expenditure and limited budgets available, countries are having to make choices about the content of health insurance plans. The views of the general population can help determine such priorities. In this article, we investigate whether preferences of the general population regarding the content of health insurance plans could be measured with the help of a stated preference method: the Basket Method (BM).

Are patients' preferences regarding the place of treatment heard and addressed at the point of referral: an exploratory study based on observations of GP-patient consultations.

Background: Today, in several north-western European countries, patients are encouraged to choose, actively, a healthcare provider. However, patients often visit the provider that is recommended by their general practitioner (GP). The introduction of patient choice requires GPs to support patients to be involved, actively, in the choice of a healthcare provider.

The effect of the proximity of patients' nearest alternative hospital on their intention to search for information on hospital quality.

Objective: In several countries, patients are encouraged to choose health care providers. Simultaneously, there is a tendency towards the concentration of health care, which might lessen the choice. Our aim was to assess the impact of patients' distances from their providers on their information-seeking, which is one element of choice.

Free choice of healthcare providers in the Netherlands is both a goal in itself and a precondition: modelling the policy assumptions underlying the promotion of patient choice through documentary analysis and interviews.

Background: In the Netherlands in 2006, a health insurance system reform took place in which regulated competition between insurers and providers is key. In this context, the government placed greater emphasis on patients being able to choose health insurers and providers as a precondition for competition. Patient choice became an instrument instead of solely a goal in itself.

Determinants of patient choice of healthcare providers: a scoping review.

Background: In several northwest European countries, a demand-driven healthcare system has been implemented that stresses the importance of patient healthcare provider choice. In this study, we are conducting a scoping review aiming to map out what is known about the determinants of patient choice of a wide range of healthcare providers. As far as we know, not many studies are currently available that attempt to draw a general picture of how patients choose a healthcare provider and of the status of research on this subject.