The Healthcare Subsidy Assessment Survey: A Novel and Validated Poverty Assessment Tool to Inform Medical Cost Subsidization in Rural Uganda.

Background: Approximately 30% of the global burden of disease is surgical, but two-thirds of the world's population cannot access safe, affordable, and timely surgical care. An ambulatory surgical center (ASC) in Uganda offers subsidized and free care to some patients, but identifying patients in greatest need is challenging. We aimed to develop an unbiased tool appropriate for medical settings to determine subsidy eligibility to prevent catastrophic healthcare expenditure (CHE) for ASC's patients.