Publication:
The Emergence of Proprietary Medical Facilities in China

No Thumbnail Available
Date
2008
ISSN
0168-8510 (Print) 0168-8510 (Linking)
Published
2008
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper analyzes the evolution and development of market conditions and government policies that have favored the emergence of proprietary medical facilities in China. Excess and differentiated demand for medical services, the existent profitability and supply of the investment capital in health care market, and favorable government policies have encouraged the entrance of proprietary facilities in health care market. The paper further analyzes why nonprofit health organizations are not an optimal organizational form in the current Chinese health care market. After discussing the strengths and weaknesses of proprietary ownership in health care market in China, the paper concludes with important managerial and policy suggestions.
Link to Data Set
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Establishing Private Health Care Facilities in Developing Countries : A Guide for Medical Entrepreneurs
    (2007) Nah, Seung-Hee; Osifo-Dawodu, Egbe
    This book is a practical guide for medical professionals who are interested in establishing health care facilities in developing countries. It is intended for individuals and organizations with little or no business experience who are seeking guidance on how to turn a general idea into concrete reality. The author's goals in writing the book were modest. The guide does not provide an exact roadmap for building a hospital or other type of health care facility, nor is there any guarantee that the new entrepreneur who follows the approach described will be able to obtain financing from investors. Rather, the book is designed as an introductory resource with which to begin the process.
  • Publication
    The Emergence of Proprietary Medical Facilities in China
    (2008) Hou, X.H.; Coyne, J.
    This paper analyzes the evolution and development of market conditions and government policies that have favored the emergence of proprietary medical facilities in China. Excess and differentiated demand for medical services, the existent profitability and supply of the investment capital in health care market, and favorable government policies have encouraged the entrance of proprietary facilities in health care market. The paper further analyzes why nonprofit health organizations are not an optimal organizational form in the current Chinese health care market. After discussing the strengths and weaknesses of proprietary ownership in health care market in China, the paper concludes with important managerial and policy suggestions. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
  • Publication
    A Generic Drug Policy as Cornerstone to Essential Medicines in China
    (Washington, DC, 2010-06) World Bank
    Compared with developed economies, health expenditure in China is not particularly high on a per capita basis or as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Similarly, pharmaceutical expenditure in comparative perspective is not particularly high on a per capita basis or as a percentage of GDP. China's exceptionally high rate of pharmaceutical expenditure has important implications for the future of a health care system that not only serves a rapidly aging population, but encourages overuse of drugs in ways that are both financially and medically inefficient. Pharmaceutical reform is therefore a high priority for China's health policymakers. Several factors are discussed for reforming this system based on lessons from recent reforms. The section following this introduction briefly reviews the expansion of basic medical insurance coverage in the 2000s and several structural features of the pharmaceutical sector in China. The related concepts of an essential medicines policy, an essential drug list, and a generic drug policy are briefly described in first section. The second section of the paper looks at several hurdles that are built into the path of essential medicines reform. The third section considers some lessons for pharmaceutical reform based on China's recent learning from regional experimentation and piloting initiatives. The fourth section considers several relevant lessons derived from reform experiences in other countries. The fifth section looks at the path forward-success factors for implementing an essential medicines program based on low-cost generic drugs.
  • Publication
    The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and the World Bank's Engagement with the Global Fund
    (Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2011-02-08) Independent Evaluation Group
    The principal purpose of this Global Program Review (GPR) is to learn lessons from the experience of the Global Fund and its interaction with the Bank in three areas: (a) the design and operation of large global partnership programs like the Global Fund that are financing country-level investments, (b) the engagement of the World Bank with these partnership programs, and (c) the evaluation of these programs. The Review has an intensive focus on the Bank's engagement with the Global Fund at the country level because of the potential for competition or collaboration between Global Fund-supported activities and the Bank's lending operations at the country level. Therefore, it also focuses on the design and operation of the Global Fund-supported activities at the country level. This review was initiated before the high-level independent review panel on fiduciary controls and oversight mechanisms of the Global Fund was commissioned in February 2011, and it was drafted before their final report, turning the page from emergency to sustainability, was issued on September 19, 2011. While the two studies are complementary and overlap to some extent, they were conducted independently of each other, for different audiences, and for different purposes.
  • Publication
    Starting from Scratch in Timor-Leste : Establishing a Pharmaceutical and Medical Supplies System in a Post-Conflict Context
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-06) Huff-Rousselle, Maggie
    This case study analyses the challenges of establishing a pharmaceutical and medical supplies system in a Timor-Leste post-conflict context. In the aftermath of its separation from Indonesia, the Timor-Leste health infrastructure was in total disarray, with more than a third of health facilities destroyed, and those remaining severely damaged. The crisis in human resources was severe, as more than 80 percent of qualified public-sector staff had returned to Indonesia. The resultant heavy dependence on expatriates was complicated by language incompatibility, and nationals were not well integrated into planning and implementation processes, as an entire public sector infrastructure was being established de nouveau. Despite the fledgling status of the public sector, a sophisticated organizational framework was envisioned for the establishment of the health sector supply system: an autonomous agency that would be a non-profit wholesaler or revolving drug fund and a public sector monopoly. The case study reviews the development of the policy and legal framework for the pharmaceutical sector, and the key phases of the commodity supply system, including: product selection through an essential drugs list; procurement hampered by use of procedures that were not appropriate for purchasing drugs for an entire country; the establishment of a centralized warehousing and distribution system; projected financing of the supply system through development of a business plan for the autonomous agency. In its exploration of the transition from post-conflict situation to health system development, the case study identifies lessons that are broadly applicable to foreign aid and external assistance in other contexts, including the tendency to 'poly-prescribe' overly ambitious and overly sophisticated solutions not pragmatically grounded in the current realities of public sector institutional and human resource constraints and capabilities.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.