Health care providers such as hospitals and primary health care facilities form an integral part of any health system. Providers must have both financial sustainability, such that they are able to continuously deliver health care services without bankruptcy, and sufficient profits to maintain...

Providing equal access to health care is an important objective in most health care systems. It is especially pertinent in systems like the Swedish primary care market, where providers are free to establish themselves in any part of the country. To improve equity in access to care, 15 out 21...

Policies aimed to spur quality competition among health care providers are ubiquitous, but their impact on quality is ex ante ambiguous. This study contributes to the sparse empirical literature on primary care quality by examining the heterogeneous impact of recent competition enhancing reforms...

Consumer choice of services that are financed by a third party may improve the matching of consumers and providers, and spur competition over quality dimensions relevant to consumers. However, in markets characterized by information frictions and switching costs, the gains from choice may fail...

This study exploits policy reforms in Swedish primary care to examine the effect of pay-for-performance (P4P) on compliance with hypertension drug guidelines among public and private health care providers. Providers in regions with P4P are compared to providers in other regions in a...

The introduction of digital technology has sparked new debates about the value of community health workers in low- and middle-income countries. This debate offers important insights into the conventions that are relevant in global public health. Community health workers, a workforce that was...

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have become the major cause of disease burden in the Philippines. In 2019, NCDs accounted for about 70 percent of the 600,000 deaths nationwide; this is projected to increase in the medium to long term. The premature deaths due to NCDs are increasing in a much...

Evaluation studies on gatekeeping in primary care exist for a variety of countries but provide mixed evidence on utilization and quality of care as well as costs. Our study evaluates the German gatekeeping program, based on claims data of a major statutory health insurance company. The panel...

Prolonged hospital stays, or hospital stays that are longer than medically necessary, are a major concern for patients, payers, and providers. We conceptualize and empirically estimate the prevalence and cost of prolonged stays among elderly hospital patients (65 years and older) in Brazil and...