Countries in Asia are working towards achieving universal health coverage while ensuring improved quality of care. One element is controlling hospital costs through payment reforms. In this paper we review experiences in using Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) based hospital payments in three Asian countries and ask if there is an "Asian way to DRGs".
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStrategic purchasing is not new, rather it first started in Western Europe in the 1960s, as an approach to improving health system responsiveness, as well as for them more effective matching of supply and demand. In the 1960s some Western European facilities were affected by empty beds, others by overcrowding. Doctors were not showing up for work, due to the establishment of dual practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs countries in Asia converge on the goal of universal health coverage (UHC), some common challenges are emerging. One is how to ensure coverage of the informal sector so as to make UHC truly universal; a second is how to design a benefit package that is responsive and appropriate to current health challenges, yet fiscally sustainable; and a third is how to ensure "supply-side readiness", i.e.
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