Using Financial Incentives and Market Mechanisms to Improve Hospitals’ Performance; A Double-edged Sword

Document Type : Letter to Editor

Author

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

Keywords


Even with the improvement of public knowledge about healthcare and health services, the healthcare sector remains an incomplete market due to the complexity of health conditions as well as the adoption of high-tech products and devices in the health sector.1 Aware of such incompleteness, health sector policy-makers play their stewardship role through the so-called control knobs to regulate efficiency, quality, and access as intermediate performance measures2 (see Figure). .... (Read more...)

  1. Schlesinger M, Gray BH. Incomplete markets and imperfect institutions: some challenges posed by trust for contemporary health care and health policy. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2016;41(4):717-742. doi:1215/03616878-3620905
  2. Roberts M, Hsiao W, Berman P, Reich M. Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity. New York: Oxford University Press; 2008. doi:1093/acprof:oso/9780195371505.001.0001
  3. Gautier L, De Allegri M, Ridde V. Transnational networks' contribution to health policy diffusion: a mixed method study of the performancebased financing community of practice in Africa. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2021;10(6):310-323. doi:34172/ijhpm.2020.57
  4. Or Z, Rococco E, Touré M, Bonastre J. Impact of competition versus centralisation of hospital care on process quality: a multilevel analysis of breast cancer surgery in France. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2022;11(4):459-469. doi:34172/ijhpm.2020.179
  5. Aryankhesal A, Sheldon TA, Mannion R. Role of pay-for-performance in a hospital performance measurement system: a multiple case study in Iran. Health Policy Plan. 2013;28(2):206-214. doi:1093/heapol/czs055
  6. Aryankhesal A, Sheldon TA, Mannion R. Impact of the Iranian hospital grading system on hospitals' adherence to audited standards: an examination of possible mechanisms. Health Policy. 2014;115(2-3):206-214. doi:1016/j.healthpol.2013.11.004
  7. Gadsden T, Mabunda SA, Palagyi A, et al. Performance-based incentives and community health workers' outputs, a systematic review. Bull World Health Organ. 2021;99(11):805-818. doi:2471/blt.20.285218
  8. Hussein M, Pavlova M, Ghalwash M, Groot W. The impact of hospital accreditation on the quality of healthcare: a systematic literature review. BMC Health Serv Res. 2021;21(1):1057. doi:1186/s12913-021-07097-6
  9. Vlaev I, King D, Darzi A, Dolan P. Changing health behaviors using financial incentives: a review from behavioral economics. BMC Public Health. 2019;19(1):1059. doi:1186/s12889-019-7407-8
  10. Hakobyan S, Cherif R. Trade in Medical Goods: Challenges and a Way Forward for Sub-Saharan Africa. Special Series on COVID. International Monetary Fund (IMF); 2021:19.
  11. Perry L, Malkin R. Effectiveness of medical equipment donations to improve health systems: how much medical equipment is broken in the developing world? Med Biol Eng Comput. 2011;49(7):719-722. doi:1007/s11517-011-0786-3
  12. Webber CM, Martínez-Gálvez G, Higuita ML, et al. Developing strategies for sustainable medical equipment maintenance in under-resourced settings. Ann Glob Health. 2020;86(1):39. doi:5334/aogh.2584
  13. Bastani P, Tahernezhad A, Hakimzadeh SM. Forty years review of upstream documents of the Islamic Republic of Iran's health sector on strategic purchasing of advanced-expensive medical equipment. Int J Health Gov. 2020;25(2):93-105. doi:1108/ijhg-12-2019-0077
  14. Aryankhesal A, Sheldon TA, Mannion R, Mahdipour S. The dysfunctional consequences of a performance measurement system: the case of the Iranian national hospital grading programme. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2015;20(3):138-145. doi:1177/1355819615576252
  15. Waithaka D, Cashin C, Barasa E. Is performance-based financing a pathway to strategic purchasing in sub-Saharan Africa? A synthesis of the evidence. Health Syst Reform. 2022;8(2):e2068231. doi:1080/23288604.2022.2068231