Study
| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.Canada one of only 5 universal healthcare countries that fails to pay hospitals based on actual patient services
Money Following Patients: A Better Way to Pay for Universally Accessible Hospital Care
Main Conclusions
- Over the last 30 years, nearly all of the world’s developed nations with universally accessible health-care systems have moved to at least partially having money follow patients for hospital care, and away from the global-budget approach that dominates hospital funding in Canada.
- While simpler to administer, global budgets disconnect funding from the volume and quality of services delivered to patients, leading to lower levels of activity and providing no financial incentives for improved access to care or superior quality services.
- Money following patients turns this system on its head, shifting patients from cost centres and a drain on the budget to a source of additional financial resources for the hospital, and creating powerful incentives for providers to increase throughput, improve efficiency, and improve the patient-centeredness of the services provided.
- Incentives to improve quality of care, both from a cost perspective and to attract additional patients, are also created by activity-based funding and can be strengthened by funding approaches that restrict payment for complications and poor quality or that reward higher quality.
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Nadeem Esmail
Senior Fellow, Fraser InstituteNadeem Esmail is a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute. He first joined the Fraser Institute in 2001, served asDirector of Health System Performance Studies from 2006 to 2009, and has been a Senior Fellow since 2010. Mr. Esmail has spearheaded critical Fraser Institute research including the annual Waiting Your Turn survey of surgical wait times across Canada and How Good Is Canadian Health Care?, an international comparison of health care systems. In addition, Mr. Esmail has authored or co-authored more than 30 comprehensive studies and more than 150 articles on a wide range of topics including the cost of public health care insurance, international comparisons of health care systems, hospital performance, medical technology, and physician shortages. A frequent commentator on radio and TV, Mr. Esmail's articles have appeared in newspapers across North America. Mr. Esmail completed his B.A. (Honours) in Economics at the University of Calgary and received an M.A. in Economics from the University of British Columbia.… Read more Read Less…
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