Octavio Gómez-Dantés, Anahi Dreser, Veronika J Wirtz, Michael R Reich
{"title":"Challenges of Guaranteeing Access to Medicines in Mexico: Lessons from Recent Changes in Pharmaceuticals Procurement.","authors":"Octavio Gómez-Dantés, Anahi Dreser, Veronika J Wirtz, Michael R Reich","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2084221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2022.2084221","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>During the last two decades, Mexico adopted policies intended to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of medicines procurement in its nationally fragmented health system. In this policy report, we review Mexico's efforts to guarantee access to medicines during three national administrations (from 2000 to 2018), and then examine major health system changes introduced by the current government (2018-2024), which have created significant setbacks in guaranteeing access to medicines in Mexico. These recent changes are having important consequences in the levels of satisfaction of health care users and citizens, household expenditure on health, and health conditions. We suggest key lessons for Mexico and other countries seeking to improve pharmaceutical procurement as part of guaranteeing access to medicines.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":" ","pages":"2084221"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40071086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Winnie Yip, Anuska Kalita, Bijetri Bose, Jan Cooper, Annie Haakenstad, William Hsiao, Liana Woskie, Michael R Reich
{"title":"Comprehensive Assessment of Health System Performance in Odisha, India.","authors":"Winnie Yip, Anuska Kalita, Bijetri Bose, Jan Cooper, Annie Haakenstad, William Hsiao, Liana Woskie, Michael R Reich","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2132366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2022.2132366","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>India has recently implemented several major health care reforms at national and state levels, yet the nation continues to face significant challenges in achieving better health system performance. These challenges are particularly daunting in India's poorer states, like Odisha. The first step toward overcoming these challenges is to understand their root causes. Toward this end, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a comprehensive study in Odisha based on ten new field surveys of the system's performance to provide a multi-perspective analysis. This article reports on the assessment of the performance of Odisha's health system and the preliminary diagnosis of underlying causes of the strengths and challenges. This comprehensive health system assessment is aimed toward the overarching goals of informing and supporting efforts to improve the performance of health systems in Odisha and other similar contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":" ","pages":"2132366"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40342578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Tale of Two Social Insurance Systems in South Korea and Taiwan: A Financial Risk Protection Perspective.","authors":"Jui-Fen Rachel Lu, Ji-Tian Sheu, Tae-Jin Lee","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2114648","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2022.2114648","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a widespread policy goal in the 21st century. The aim is to protect people from financial risk while promoting their access to good-quality care. This study examined the social insurance systems of South Korea and Taiwan to explore the critical challenges of achieving effective UHC. By assessing the impact of UHC on financial risk protection (measured by out-of-pocket payment share and catastrophic payment headcount), we found that when South Korea inaugurated its National Health Insurance (NHI) program with a limited benefits package and high cost sharing, it did not reduce the financial burden. Meanwhile, we observed a drop of 5 to 6 percentage points in the catastrophic payment headcount in Taiwan, which offered a universal and rather comprehensive benefits package with a modest cost-sharing design under its single-payer NHI system. The political-economic context of the UHC policy evolution was further explored through an in-depth discussion. We conclude that to provide sufficient financial risk protection against unexpected medical expenses, the design of the insurance scheme, in particular the risk-sharing mechanism, not only matters but is also the key to success.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":" ","pages":"2114648"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40383629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Quality of Primary Care in Cambodia: An Assessment of Knowledge and Effort of Public Sector Maternal and Child Care Providers.","authors":"Dan Han, Somil Nagpal, Sebastian Bauhoff","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2124903","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2022.2124903","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Improving the quality of primary care is essential for achieving universal health coverage in low- and middle-income countries. This study examined the level and variation in primary care provider knowledge and effort in Cambodia, using cross-sectional data collected in 2014-2015 from public sector health centers in nine provinces. The data included clinical vignettes and direct observations of processes of antenatal care, postnatal care, and well-child visits and covered between 290-495 health centers and 370-847 individual providers for each service and type of data. The results indicate that provider knowledge and observed effort were generally low and varied across health centers and across individual providers. In addition, providers' effort scores were generally lower than their knowledge scores, indicating the presence of a \"know-do gap.\" Although higher provider knowledge was correlated with higher levels of effort during patient encounters, knowledge only explained a limited fraction of the provider-level variation in effort. Due to low baseline performance and the know-do gap, improving provider adherence to clinical guidelines through training and practice standardization alone may have limited impact. Overall, the findings suggest that raising the low quality of care provided by Cambodia's public sector will require multidimensional interventions that involve training, strategies that increase provider motivation, and improved health center management. The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work presented in this article.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":" ","pages":"2124903"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40383633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rural-Urban Differences: Using Finer Geographic Classifications to Reevaluate Distance and Choice of Health Services in Malawi.","authors":"Kaitlyn McBride, Corrina Moucheraud","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2051229","DOIUrl":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2051229","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>There is no universal understanding of what defines urban or rural areas nor criteria for differentiating within these. When assessing access to health services, traditional urban-rural dichotomies may mask substantial variation. We use geospatial methods to link household data from the 2015-2016 Malawi Demographic Health Survey to health facility data from the Malawi Service Provision Assessment and apply a new proposed four-category classification of geographic area (urban major metropolitan area, urban township, rural, and remote) to evaluate households' distance to, and choice of, primary, secondary, and tertiary health care in Malawi. Applying this new four-category definition, approximately 3.8 million rural- and urban-defined individuals would be reclassified into new groups, nearly a quarter of Malawi's 2015 population. There were substantial differences in distance to the nearest facility using this new categorization: remote households are (on average) an additional 5 km away from secondary and tertiary care services versus rural households. Health service choice differs also, particularly in urban areas, a distinction that is lost when using a simple binary classification: those living in major metropolitan households have a choice of five facilities offering comprehensive primary care services within a 10-km zone, whereas urban township households have no choice, with only one such facility within 10 km. Future research should explore how such expanded classifications can be standardized and used to strengthen public health and demographic research.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":"8 1","pages":"e2051229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995164/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10853061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
John A Mushomi, George Palattiyil, Paul Bukuluki, Dina Sidhva, Nellie D Myburgh, Harish Nair, Francis Mulekya-Bwambale, Jacques L Tamuzi, Peter S Nyasulu
{"title":"Impact of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Crisis on Migrants on the Move in Southern Africa: Implications for Policy and Practice.","authors":"John A Mushomi, George Palattiyil, Paul Bukuluki, Dina Sidhva, Nellie D Myburgh, Harish Nair, Francis Mulekya-Bwambale, Jacques L Tamuzi, Peter S Nyasulu","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2021.2019571","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2021.2019571","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) knows no borders and no single approach may produce a successful impact in controlling the pandemic in any country. In Southern Africa, where migration between countries is high mainly from countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to South Africa, there is limited understanding of how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting the social and economic life of migrants and migrant communities. In this article, we share reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on people on the move within Southern Africa land border communities, examine policy, practice, and challenges affecting both the cross-border migrants and host communities. This calls for the need to assess whether the current response has been inclusive enough and does not perpetuate discriminatory responses. The lockdown and travel restrictions imposed during the various waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in SADC countries, more so in South Africa where the migrant population is high, denote that most migrants living with other comorbidities especially HIV/TB and who were enrolled in chronic care in their countries of origin were exposed to challenges of access to continued care. Further, migrants as vulnerable groups have low access to COVID-19 vaccines. This made them more vulnerable to deterioration of preexisting comorbidities and increased the risk of migrants becoming infected with COVID-19. It is unfortunate that certain disease outbreaks have been racialized, creating potential xenophobic environments and fear among migrant populations as well as gender inequalities in access to health care and livelihood. Therefore, a successful COVID-19 response and any future pandemics require a \"whole system\" approach as well as a regional coordinated humanitarian response approach if the devastating impacts on people on the move are to be lessened and effective control of the pandemic ensured.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":" ","pages":"e2019571"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39959032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Corrina Moucheraud, John Mboya, Doris Njomo, Ginger Golub, Martina Gant, May Sudhinaraset
{"title":"Trust, Care Avoidance, and Care Experiences among Kenyan Women Who Delivered during the COVID-19 Pandemic.","authors":"Corrina Moucheraud, John Mboya, Doris Njomo, Ginger Golub, Martina Gant, May Sudhinaraset","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2156043","DOIUrl":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2156043","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We explore how the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with avoidance of, and challenges with, antenatal, childbirth and postpartum care among women in Kiambu and Nairobi counties, Kenya; and whether this was associated with a report of declined trust in the health system due to the pandemic. Women who delivered between March and November 2020 were invited to participate in a phone survey about their care experiences (n = 1122 respondents). We explored associations between reduced trust and care avoidance, delays and challenges with healthcare seeking, using logistic regression models adjusted for women's characteristics. Approximately half of respondents said their trust in the health care system had declined due to COVID-19 (52.7%, n = 591). Declined trust was associated with higher likelihood of reporting barriers accessing antenatal care (aOR 1.59 [95% CI 1.24, 2.05]), avoiding care for oneself (aOR 2.26 [95% CI 1.59, 3.22]) and for one's infant (aOR 1.77 [95% CI 1.11, 2.83]), and of feeling unsafe accessing care (aOR 1.52 [95% CI 1.19, 1.93]). Since March 2020, emergency services, routine care and immunizations were avoided most often. Primary reported reasons for avoiding care and challenges accessing care were financial barriers and problems accessing the facility. Declined trust in the health care system due to COVID-19 may have affected health care-seeking for women and their children in Kenya, which could have important implications for their health and well-being. Programs and policies should consider targeted special \"catch-up\" strategies that include trust-building messages and actions for women who deliver during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":"8 1","pages":"2156043"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995165/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9442867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Girmaye D Dinsa, Ermias Dessie, Sarah Hurlburt, Yosef Gebreyohannes, Catherine Arsenault, Bereket Yakob, Tsinuel Girma, Peter Berman, Margaret E Kruk
{"title":"Equitable Distribution of Poor Quality of Care? Equity in Quality of Reproductive Health Services in Ethiopia.","authors":"Girmaye D Dinsa, Ermias Dessie, Sarah Hurlburt, Yosef Gebreyohannes, Catherine Arsenault, Bereket Yakob, Tsinuel Girma, Peter Berman, Margaret E Kruk","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2062808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2022.2062808","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Ethiopian health system faces persistent inequities in health-care utilization and outcomes, despite continued efforts to expand health service coverage. There is little evidence in the literature describing the status of equity in the quality of healthcare. This paper aims to understand the disparities in quality of antenatal care (ANC) and family planning (FP) among the poor and non-poor communities. We used the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data to compute a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), and the 2014 Service Provision Assessment (SPA) data to assess quality of ANC and FP services-defined as the level of adherence to World Health Organization (WHO) clinical and service guidelines. We merged the two datasets using geographical coordinates, and aggregated service users into facility catchment area clusters using a 2-km radius for urban and 10-km radius for rural facilities. We computed ANC and FP quality and MPI indices for each facility and assigned these to catchment areas. Using the international cutoff point for deprivation (MPI = 33.3%), we evaluated whether the quality of ANC and FP services varies by poor and non-poor catchment areas. We found that most of catchment areas (75.7%) were deprived. While the overall quality of ANC and FP services are low (33% and 34% respectively), we found little variation in the distribution of the quality of these services between poor and non-poor areas, urban and rural settings, or regionally. The short-term focus needs to be on improving the overall quality of services rather than on its distribution.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":"8 1","pages":"e2062808"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10824453","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gafar Alawode, Ayomide B Adewoyin, Abdulmajeed O Abdulsalam, Frances Ilika, Chidera Chukwu, Zakariya Mohammed, Abubakar Kurfi
{"title":"The Political Economy of the Design of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) in Nigeria: A Retrospective Analysis for Prospective Action.","authors":"Gafar Alawode, Ayomide B Adewoyin, Abdulmajeed O Abdulsalam, Frances Ilika, Chidera Chukwu, Zakariya Mohammed, Abubakar Kurfi","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2124601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2022.2124601","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nigeria has instituted health financing reforms in the past, yet Universal Health Coverage (UHC) remains elusive and out-of-pocket spending accounts for over 70% of the country's total health expenditure. A current reform, the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), was established by the National Health Act of 2014 to increase the coverage of quality basic health services and promote UHC in Nigeria. However, there is limited knowledge of the political economy of health financing reforms in Nigeria and the impact on reform outcomes. This study applied the Political Economy Framework for Health Financing Reforms as described by Sparkes et al. in assessing the political economy of the BHCPF design. The study found that the BHCPF design was considerably influenced by the interplay of stakeholders' interests. The National Assembly was pivotal in ensuring the first BHCPF appropriation in 2018, and the Minister of Health, using donor-funded support, hastened the early BHCPF design. However, certain design elements were opposed by the legislature, bureaucratic and interest groups, which led to the suspension of the BHCPF and its subsequent redesign, led by bureaucratic groups. This produced changes in the BHCPF utilization, governance, pooling and counterpart funding arrangements, some of which increased the influence of bureaucratic groups and diminished the influence of the health ministry and external actors. These changes have implications for BHCPF implementation subsequently, including reduced accountability, potential stakeholders' conflicts, and fragmentation in external contributions. Understanding and managing these stakeholders' dynamics can create an accelerated consensus, minimize obstacles, and efficiently mobilize resources for achieving reform objectives.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":" ","pages":"2124601"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40377688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How to Pay for Telemedicine: A Comparison of Ten Health Systems.","authors":"Sarah Raes, Jeroen Trybou, Lieven Annemans","doi":"10.1080/23288604.2022.2116088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2022.2116088","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Telemedicine has the opportunity to improve clinical effectiveness, health care access, cost-savings, and patient care. However, payment systems may form important obstacles to optimally use telemedicine and enable its opportunities. Little is known about payment systems for telemedicine. Therefore, this research aims to increase knowledge on paying for telemedicine by comparing payment systems for telemedicine and identifying similarities and differences. Based on the countries' official physician fee schedules, listing all reimbursed medical services performed by physicians, a comparative analysis of telemedicine payment systems in ten countries was conducted. Findings show that many countries lacked tele-expertise and telemonitoring payment, with the exception for some specific payments such as for telemonitoring in patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices. Moreover, a wide variety of benefit specifications were implemented in all countries to specify which type of clinician contact should be used (remote versus physical) in which circumstances. Payment parity between video and in-person visits was established only in a few countries. Furthermore, fee-for-service was the dominant payment system, although two countries used a capitation-based or hybrid system. The results imply several potential payment challenges when implementing telemedicine: complex benefit specifications, payment parity discussions, and risk of overconsumption due to the dominant fee-for-service system. These challenges appear to be less present in capitation-based or hybrid systems. However, the latter needs to be further explored to harness the full potential of telemedicine.</p>","PeriodicalId":73218,"journal":{"name":"Health systems and reform","volume":" ","pages":"2116088"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33455586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}