Publication:
Caveat RAPtor : Regulation in Resource Allocation and Purchasing

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (651.13 KB)
150 downloads
English Text (55.49 KB)
27 downloads
Published
2004-09
ISSN
Date
2013-05-30
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper examines the effect that existing and proposed laws and regulations can have on the feasibility and effectiveness of arrangements for resource allocation and purchasing for the health sector in developing and transitional economies. The paper reviews effects of laws and regulations on: the medical benefits purchased, .the choice of medical provider, and .the transaction in which care is provided. Specific reference is made to recent experience in Russia, South Africa, Chile, and the Philippines, as well as possible precedents from more developed countries. Categories of law and regulation discussed include: provider licensing, monopoly and competition legislation, liability for professional negligence, mandated benefits and permitted exclusions, antidiscrimination laws, appeals procedures and other methods of asserting patient entitlement, rate setting and prohibitions on unauthorized provider charges, capacity controls and purchaser discretion in selecting providers, and patient confidentiality and collection of payment-related data.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Feeley, Frank G.. 2004. Caveat RAPtor : Regulation in Resource Allocation and Purchasing. Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) discussion paper;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13707 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Mental Health in Afghanistan : Burden, Challenges and the Way Forward
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-08) Sayed, Ghulam Dastagir
    Afghanistan has been in internal and external strife for more than thirty years. Prolonged conflict and civil war have left millions dead, thousands with disabilities and massive internal and external population displacement. The situation has contributed negatively to every aspect of the country and society as the majority of the population has been traumatized by constant conflict, natural disasters, and the difficult Taliban years. There is ample evidence that these calamities have contributed to an increase in mental health problems and has been further complicated by growing level of drug abuse. As Afghanistan rebuilds itself, it is critical to understand the challenges and develop workable solutions. The paucity of high quality data on mental health problems and the lack of qualified human resources have hampered the development of cost-effective strategies and interventions to address the growing challenge of mental health in the country. There are few mental health facilities, and these facilities are scattered across the country with limited capacity and low levels of coverage. In addition, the population continues to face the main stressors with ongoing conflict in various parts of the country. To address mental health issues on a larger scale, this paper recommends public awareness-raising campaigns as a foremost prerequisite. It also proposes to draw on existing resources efficiently. Achieving the aforementioned objectives require political support by the Government of Afghanistan along with technical and financial support of the development partners. This will allow necessary expansion of mental health services and will build the capacity of mental health clinicians and public health experts in the country.
  • Publication
    Background Study for the National Strategy on Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction, 2015-2020
    (World Bank, Bucharest, 2015-10-15) Tesliuc, Emil; Grigoras, Vlad; Stanculescu, Manuela
    The background study for the national strategy on social inclusion and poverty reduction 2015-2020 was produced under a RAS agreement with the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection, and Elderly of Romania. The report is a companion volume of the strategy, adopted by the Romanian Government in May 2015, and summarizes the diagnostics and analyses carried out by the World Bank team to provide a sound empirical base for the strategy. Given the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, the report includes diagnostics and policy recommendations on employment, social protection, education, health, housing, social participation, as well as regional and rural development policies. The document is based on a combination of desk research, qualitative data analysis, new data collected by the World Bank team and analyses of administrative, census, and survey data. This included qualitative research (for example, case-studies in two counties, interviews with representatives of central governmental bodies, interviews with recipients and eligible potential beneficiaries of means-tested benefits and with social workers), and quantitative data collection and analysis (a census on social housing stock; census of frontline social workers; a consolidated database of physicians, representatives of the pharmacies, community nurses, and health mediators; administrative dataset with social services for elderly, social services for people with disabilities and specialized child protection services; analysis of poverty. The book is organized in four parts. The first part starts with an analysis of the trends in poverty and social exclusion over the past few years and with a poverty forecast for the next five years (2015 to 2020). The second part analyzes the sectoral policies that must be implemented to tackle the problems identified in the first part of the volume. The third part turns its focus to area-based policies and discusses regional disparities, urban-rural differences, and specific problems in small towns and villages, rural, and urban marginalized areas, and Roma and non-Roma communities. The fourth part discusses the actions needed to strengthen the capacity of the public system to reduce poverty and increase social inclusion.
  • Publication
    Multiple Payers in Health Care : A Framework for Assessment
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-09) Zweifel, Peter
    The starting point of the debate about the pros and cons of multipayer systems is the suspicion that in many health care systems, consumers do not get sufficient value for money. This contribution argues that one cause may be a non-optimal choice of payment systems. Optimal payment of health care providers importantly depends on the amount of information available to the (prospective) patient. If patients have full information about both the effort exerted and the effectiveness of the service provider, the conventional fee-for-service payment is optimal from their point of view. If patients cannot observe true effort exerted while providers are reasonably homogenous with respect to effectiveness, the optimal payment function consists of a fixed payment and a bonus for especially favorable outcomes in terms of health. If the patient in addition does not know whether a given health care provider effective or ineffective, a special informational rent designed to attract the unrecognized favorable type is appropriate. Now, a government is unlikely to come up with payment systems that closely conform to this conditionality, typically preferring single-payer systems that allow service providers to exercise monopsony power and thus keep health care expenditure low. Multiple-payer systems containing competitive health insurers may have an advantage in designing payment systems in a way that maintains or reinforces provider incentives to do the right thing for their patients, resulting in more value for money.
  • Publication
    A Self-Assessment Guide for Health Care Organizations
    (Washington, DC, 2015) International Finance Corporation
    This guide is designed to assist health care organizations in emerging markets to reach ‘international standards’ of quality and patient safety. It will enable them to conduct an organizational self-assessment to identify how well they are meeting defined standards in five key areas: governance and leadership, ethics and patient rights, quality measurement and improvement, patient safety, and facility safety and emergency management. The guide will help them to gauge how much effort they need to make, and in which areas, to reach international standards. The assessment is not, in itself, intended for use as an accreditation tool, although it is likely to be a useful tool for organizations that are actively considering international accreditation. If the organization has already attained international accreditation, the Guide may serve to reinforce its commitment to the process of continual improvement. The document provides information regarding key principles underlying quality improvement initiatives. And it guides users through the important steps of undertaking a quality self-assessment. These include: getting organized, collecting data, identifying gaps and developing plans for meeting key standards.
  • Publication
    Georgia’s Medical Insurance Program for the Poor
    (World Bank, Washington DC, 2013-01) Smith, Owen
    Georgia launched its Medical Insurance Program (MIP) for the poor in 2006. This program draws from general tax revenues to provide comprehensive, means-tested health insurance to the poorest 20 percent of the population as identified by a proxy means test. The government contracts private insurance companies who serve as financial risk carriers and purchasing agents for the program. MIP is well targeted to the poor and has had a major impact on improving financial protection of its beneficiaries. It has also served as a launching pad for significant investments in hospitals and information technology (IT) systems. In brief, MIP is a program funded through general taxation that provides a fairly comprehensive benefits package of health services to the poorest 20 percent of the population as identified via a proxy means test. There are no copayments for services. Although run by a state purchaser during the first two years, since 2008 its key feature has been that private insurance companies are contracted by the Ministry of Health to bear financial risk and to purchase services from both public and private providers on behalf of poor beneficiaries. The government sets policy, pays a per capita premium per beneficiary to private insurers, and conducts program oversight. This case study provides an overview of how MIP is designed, its achievements to date, and challenges for the future. A key theme discussed in further detail, and of potential interest to other countries contemplating a push toward the achievement of universal health coverage, is the contracting of private insurance companies to purchase services on behalf of the poor. Some attention is also given to MIP's targeting approach.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Doing Business 2014 : Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises
    (Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2013-10-28) World Bank; International Finance Corporation
    Eleventh in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 185 economies, Doing Business 2014 measures regulations affecting 11 areas of everyday business activity: Starting a business, Dealing with construction permits, Getting electricity, Registering property, Getting credit, Protecting investors, Paying taxes, Trading across borders, Enforcing contracts, Closing a business, Employing workers. The report updates all indicators as of June 1, 2013, ranks economies on their overall “ease of doing business”, and analyzes reforms to business regulation – identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. The Doing Business reports illustrate how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. Doing Business is a flagship product by the World Bank and IFC that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 60 economies use the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 870 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2006
    (Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
    This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2011
    (World Bank, 2011) World Bank
    The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.