Pathways to DRG-based hospital payment systems in Japan, Korea, and Thailand.

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".

Trends in Health Financing: The Move from Passive to Strategic Purchasing in Middle- and Low-Income Countries.

Strategic 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.

Emerging challenges in implementing universal health coverage in Asia.

As 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.

The role of purchasing in hospital performance.

In this article the authors review the core messages on getting value for public money spent on healthcare presented in a recent World Bank publication, Spending Wisely: Buying Health Services for the Poor, edited by the same authors. The authors discuss how interest of the poor would often be better served through a fundamental shift in the way public money is spent on the health services--notably by moving away from passive budgeting within the public sector towards strategic purchasing or contracting of services from non-governmental providers. The shift from hiring staff in the public sector and producing services "in house" to strategic purchasing of non governmental providers--outsourcing--has been at the centre of a lively debate on collective financing of healthcare during recent years.

Supplemental health insurance: did Croatia miss an opportunity?

Croatia continues to face a health-funding crisis. A recent supplemental health insurance law increases revenues through first increasing co-payments, then raising the payroll tax to cover those co-payments. This public finance "slight-of-hand" will not solve the system's structural issues and may worsen system performance both in terms of efficiency and equity.

Consumer out-of-pocket spending for pharmaceuticals in Kazakhstan: implications for sectoral reform.

What do consumers pay for pharmaceuticals in a transition economy, and who is hit hardest? Kazakhstan is in the midst of emerging from a Soviet Union state to a market economy. It has seen a significant dip in Gross Domestic Product and available revenues for health as a result. New sources of revenues, such as out-of-pocket payments, both formal and informal, have become widespread.

Consensus among experts and research synthesis. A comparison of methods.

A comparison of two assessment methods, consensus among experts and research synthesis of the scientific literature, was performed using a surgical procedure, carotid endarterectomy (CE), as an example. These two methods have been widely advocated as being scientifically valid. While the comparison revealed a number of areas of general agreement, important differences between the two methods emerged.

Exploratory research synthesis--methodological considerations for addressing limitations in data quality.

Exploratory meta-analysis or research synthesis has been advocated as a way of developing important hypotheses for further study. An exploratory research synthesis was conducted on the carotid endarterectomy (CE) literature to illustrate this method. The CE scientific literature is similar to that of many other new medical interventions because it contains numerous limitations to data quality.

Carotid endarterectomy for asymptomatic patients. Assessing results of a quantitative synthesis.

Carotid endarterectomy (CE) surgery for asymptomatic patients remains controversial despite hundreds of published studies and recent randomized trials. Safety and efficacy are assessed using a quantitative synthesis method derived from meta-analysis and a "critical multiplist" inference approach. In addition, multivariate analyses reveal that use of a surgical shunt could further improve CE outcomes.

Understanding volume: a Medicare primer.

Volume, rather than real fee increases, has been the driving force behind increasing physicians' costs throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, these researchers from the Health Care Financing Administration say. But where has it been growing?

Developing payment refinements and reforms under Medicare for excluded hospitals.

Four classes of specialty hospitals (children's, psychiatric, rehabilitation, and long-term) and two types of distinct-part units in general hospitals (psychiatric and rehabilitation) have been excluded from the Medicare hospital prospective payment system since it was enacted by Congress in 1983. The number of these facilities and the Medicare dollars expended have more than doubled in less than 5 years, prompting renewed policy interest in developing payment reform. In this context, the substantial research and policy development efforts to refine case-mix classification and payment policies for these facilities are reviewed and examined.

Physician incomes and work patterns across specialties: 1975 and 1983-84.

Survey data on physician income and work patterns are examined and compared for 1975 and 1983-84. Specialty, hours and weeks worked, location, practice size, and incorporation status are examined. Dollar figures for 1975 are adjusted to show real-dollar income changes over the period.

The future of Medicare policy reform.

The Medicare program, the largest health insurance program in the United States, is clearly at a crossroads as it enters its third decade. Historical increases in health care expenditures, plus a changing political and economic landscape, have set the groundwork for policy reform. Two basic reform strategies--reimbursement arrangements and program funding mechanisms--are discussed.

The future of Medicare policy reform: priorities for research and demonstrations.

The Medicare program, the largest health insurance program in the United States, is clearly at a crossroads as it enters its third decade. Historical increases in health care expenditures, plus a changing political and economic landscape, have set the groundwork for policy reform. Basic reform strategies, most notably reimbursement arrangements, are discussed.