Increasing evidence shows that hospital competition under fixed prices can improve quality and reduce cost. Concerns remain, however, that competition may undermine socio-economic equity in the utilisation of care. We test this hypothesis in the context of the pro-competition reforms of the...

This study developed a method for measuring change in socio-economic equity in health care utilisation using small area level administrative data. Our method provides more detailed information on utilisation than survey data but only examines socio-economic differences between neighbourhoods...

In this paper we investigate the relationship between patients’ primary care costs (consultations, tests, drugs) and their age, gender, deprivation and alternative measures of their morbidity and multimorbidity. Such information is required in order to set capitation fees or budgets for...

We were commissioned by the Department of Health’s Payment by Results (PbR) team to use 2009/10 data update the analysis we performed using 2008/9 data to estimate the marginal costs of providing specialised care (Daidone and Street, 2011). The objectives of the original work were to...

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) routinely publishes details of the evidence and reasoning underpinning its recommendations, including its social value judgements. To date, however, NICE?s social value judgements relating to equity in the distribution of health...

NHS Trusts have statutory powers to raise income, which allow them to decide whether to charge, and how much to charge, for hospital car parking. Trusts are not obliged to provide parking facilities on their premises, but provision will inevitably incur costs in the form of maintenance, security...

This Discussion Paper is concerned with the development of risk-sharing systems for health, in low- and middle-income countries. It questions whether insurance theory developed in wealthier economies, in particular the central ideas of adverse selection and moral hazard, has relevance in the...

Recently the English NHS has introduced an activity-based payment scheme for secondary care - the Payment by Results (PbR) policy. In this paper we discuss, from an economic perspective, the main intended and unintended incentives created by this policy. We also outline the role of different NHS...

The Russian pharmaceutical sector is currently undergoing reform of the procurement, distribution and financing of medical drugs. The political imperatives underpinning these changes are wide ranging, and include the desire to protect local industry while benefiting from higher quality or less...

The need to develop methods of measuring nursing workload is not new, but the search for accurate measures to calculate the demand for nursing has assumed greater significance in recent years owing to the advent of resource management and the necessity to manage efficiently the most costly...