Cost sharing represents a well-established tool for the control of health care demand in many Oecd countries. However, it is used with caution and in combination with other instruments in order to avoid potential negative impacts on access to essential health care services. Waiting lists and...

The paper aims to analyse the extent to which the adoption of best practice policies could improve the efficiency of Italian Regional Healthcare Systems (RHSs) and reduce public healthcare expenditures. By means of a stochastic frontier model we estimate the RHSs’ technical inefficiency and...

Consolidation is often considered as a means to lower service delivery costs and enhance accountability. This paper uses a prospective evaluation design to derive estimates of the potential cost savings that may arise from Local Healthcare Authorities (LHAs) amalgamation process, which is...