Contracting non-state providers for universal health coverage: learnings from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe

BACKGROUND

Formal engagement with non-state providers (NSP) is an important strategy in many low-and-middle-income countries for extending coverage of publicly financed health services. The series of country studies reviewed in this paper - from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda - provide a unique opportunity to understand the dynamics of NSP engagement in different contexts.

METHODS

A standard template was developed and used to summarize the main findings from the country studies. The summaries were then organized according to emergent themes and a narrative built around these themes.

RESULTS

Governments contracted NSPs for a variety of reasons - limited public sector capacity, inability of public sector services to reach certain populations or geographic areas, and the widespread presence of NSPs in the health sector. Underlying these reasons was a recognition that purchasing services from NSPs was necessary to increase coverage of health services. Yet, institutional NSPs faced many service delivery challenges. Like the public sector, institutional NSPs faced challenges in recruiting and retaining health workers, and ensuring service quality. Properly managing relationships between all actors involved was critical to contracting success and the role of NSPs as strategic partners in achieving national health goals. Further, the relationship between the central and lower administrative levels in contract management, as well as government stewardship capacity for monitoring contractual performance were vital for NSP performance.

CONCLUSION

For countries with a sizeable NSP sector, making full use of the available human and other resources by contracting NSPs and appropriately managing them, offers an important way for expanding coverage of publicly financed health services and moving towards universal health coverage.

Dedicated health systems strengthening of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria: an analysis of grants

BACKGROUND

This study aims to understand the determinants of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria's dedicated channel for health systems strengthening (HSS) funding across countries and to analyze their health system priorities expressed in budgets and performance indicators.

METHODS

We obtained publicly available data for disease-specific and HSS grants from the Global Fund over 2004-2013 prior to the new funding model. Regression analysis was employed to assess the determinants of dedicated HSS funding across 111 countries. Documents for 27 dedicated HSS grants including budgets and performance indicators were collected, and activities were analyzed by health system functions.

RESULTS

HSS funding per capita is significantly associated with TB and HIV funding per capita, but not per capita income and health worker density. Of 27 dedicated HSS grants, 11 had line-item budgets publicly available, in which health workforce and medical products form the majority (89% or US$132 million of US$148 million) of funds. Yet these areas accounted for 41.7% (215) of total 516 performance indicators.

CONCLUSIONS

Health worker densities were not correlated with HSS funding, despite the emphasis on health workforce in budgets and performance indicators. Priorities in health systems in line-item budgets differ from the numbers of indicators used.

Attracting doctors to rural areas: a case study of the post-graduate seat reservation scheme in andhra pradesh

Background:

Attracting doctors to rural posts is an ongoing challenge for health departments across different states in India. One strategy adopted by several states to make rural service attractive for medical graduates is to reserve post-graduate (PG) seats in medical colleges for doctors serving in the public sector.

Objective:

This study examines the PG reservation scheme in Andhra Pradesh to understand its role in improving rural recruitment of doctors and specialists, the challenges faced by the scheme and how it can be strengthened.

Materials and Methods:

Qualitative case study methodology was adopted in which a variety of stakeholders such as government officials, health systems managers and serving Medical Officers were interviewed. This was supplemented with quantitative data on the scheme obtained from the Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department in Andhra Pradesh.

Results:

The PG reservation scheme appears to have been one of the factors responsible in attracting doctors to the public sector and to rural posts, with a reduction in vacancies at both the Primary Health Centre and Community Health Centre levels. Expectedly, in-service candidates have a better chance of getting a PG seat than general candidates. However, problems such as the mismatch of the demand and supply of certain types of specialist doctors, poor academic performance of in-service candidates as well as quality of services and enforcement of the post-PG bond need to be resolved.

Conclusion:

The PG reservation scheme is a powerful incentive to attract doctors to rural areas. However, better monitoring of service quality, strategically aligning PG training through the scheme with the demand for specialists as well as stricter enforcement of the financial bond are required to improve the scheme's effectiveness.