Health funding reforms often fail to change organizations’ and individuals’ behaviour in the way that policy makers intend. This is perhaps because financial incentive systems traditionally have been designed according to a “reward-punishment,” or behaviourist, model of influencing human...

Greater recognition by economists of the influential role that concern for distributional equity exerts on decision making in a variety of economic contexts has spurred interest in empirical research on the public judgments of fair distribution. Using a stated-preference experimental design,...

Genetic testing has long been part of Canada’s health system, but the scope of genetic testing is growing into new areas. Whereas traditional tests predominantly foretell the health of future generations, new tests increasingly tell individuals about their own health and risks. And whereas...

Every funding system creates “incentives.” However, in real policy applications, the motivating quality of a funding change is not inherent to the funding structure. Rather, contextual factors highly determine how organizations and individuals interpret, feel motivated by, and act in...

The Introduction of Case-Based Funding Case based funding reforms were introduced independently in Ontario and Alberta in 1988, with the goals of improving equity in funding across hospitals and efficiency in the delivery of services. Both provinces appointed multi-stakeholder steering...

This background paper was prepared to inform discussion at CHEPA's Health Policy Symposium Field of Dreams: Strengthening Health Policy Scholarship in Canada on November 2, 2007. We reflect on the characteristics of Canada's health policy community in relation to the larger and more mature...

This paper describes a method for the case study of financial incentives in health care systems. This approach is for applying a conceptual framework that describes funding changes -- and their transformation into “financial incentives” that change behaviour -- as a communication process...