scholarly journals Willingness to Pay for Social Health Insurance and Associated Factors among Health Care Providers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Abel Mekonne ◽  
Benyam Seifu ◽  
Chernet Hailu ◽  
Alemayehu Atomsa
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
Social Health Insurance ◽  
Social Health ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
The Government

Background. Cost sharing between beneficiaries and government is critical to attain universal health coverage. The government of Ethiopia introduced social health insurance to improve access to quality health services. Hence, HCP are the ultimate frontline service provider; their WTP for health insurance could influence the implementation of the scheme directly or indirectly. However, there is limited evidence on willingness to pay (WTP) for social health insurance (SHI) among health professionals. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from May 1st to August 15th, 2019. A total sample of 480 health care providers was selected using a multistage sampling method. The collected data were entered into Epi Info version 7.1 and analyzed with SPSS version 23. Binary and multiple logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify the associated factor outcome variable. The association was presented in odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and significance determined at a P value less than 0.05. Result. A total of 460 health care providers responded to the questionnaire, making a 95.8% response rate. Of the respondents, only 132 (28.7%) were WTP for SHI. Higher educational status [AOR=2.9, 95% CI (1.2-7.3)], higher monthly income [AOR=2.2, 95% CI (1.2-4.3)], recent family illness [AOR=2.4, 95% CI (1.4-4.4)], and a good awareness about SHI [AOR=4.4, 95% CI (2.4-7.8)] showed significant association with WTP for SHI. The main reasons for not WTP were thinking the government should cover the cost, preferring out-pocket payment and the provided SHI scheme does not cover all the health care costs health care providers lost interest in pay for SHI. Conclusion and Recommendation. The majority of health care providers were not willing to pay for the introduced SHI scheme. The provided SHI scheme should be clear and provide special consideration for health care providers as the majority of them receives free health care service from their employer health care institution. Also, the government, health professional associations, and other concerned stakeholders should provide awareness creation programs by targeting low and middle-level health professionals in order to increase WTP for SHI among health care providers.

scholarly journals Έλεγχος ποιότητας ιατρικής συνταγογράφησης

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ευφροσύνη Πρινέα
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Social Health Insurance ◽  
Social Health ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
The Right

Health care error, fraud, and abuse affect everyone. They contribute to the rising costs of health care and, in some instances, diminish the quality of care that is provided.Most health care providers are honest and are providing the best care that they can, but the small number who aren’t find ways to steal billions of money from the health care system each year. Even more is lost to errors in billing that are never found.Strategic efforts are needed to inform the patients about the right use of the medicines. It is in the best interest of all citizens, to be informed, aware, and involved in stopping and preventing error or fraud. There is an increasing awareness and concern over medication errors. Patient safety and medication errors have become prominent issues on the national health care agenda.Beyond the financial costs associated with medication errors are the consequences often endured by the patient. Medication errors represent real losses to employers and employees - in time, money and quality of life. Medication errors can occur in the process of naming, prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, and administering of medications. Patients themselves can also cause errors by failing to comply with instructions.Design/methodology/approach: A total of: a) 300 questionnaires of patients insured at greek social health insurance organization were examined in relation to written and oral doctor obligations, drug side-effects, chronic health problems of the patients, smoking and alcohol consumption and doctor’s driving counseling (year of study: 2003) b) 1,000 prescriptions were taken as a sampling from a total of 10,000 prescriptions issued in two years (2001 - 2002) by doctors of big social health insurance organization in Athens. The doctors were belonged to many specialties and the quality of doctors prescribing (dosology, obligations, prescription completion, drug interactions) was examined c) about 5,500 prescriptions of social health insurance organization were examined for drugs that were not contained in the drug prescription list and could be written on a prescription only as unique and indispensable drug for the certain disease (characterized by the doctor) (year of study: 2002) d) specialized drugs that imported from abroad for certain patients belonged to big social health insurance organization between 2003 – 2004 and had no other therapeutic choice. e) also, characteristical examples of prescriptions contained very serious mistakes that were found during this study, are presented.Originality/value – The results of this study showed inappropriate prescription of many drugs. Unfortunately, the use of medicines without indication, over appropriate dosology or without the right obligations, is not a rare phenomenon in our days. Physicians are often not able to satisfy the demand of the appropriate prescribing of drugs, because of limited time, lack, or wrong information source, or trying to earn more money from the big pharmaceutical companies.So, intervention methods should be chosen to change physicians prescribing behavior, and to improve the quality of their prescriptions.

scholarly journals Household preferences and willingness to pay for health insurance in Kampala City: a discrete choice experiment

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Kalyango ◽  
Rornald Muhumuza Kananura ◽  
Elizabeth Ekirapa Kiracho
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Kampala City ◽  
Household Preferences

Abstract Introduction Uganda is in discussions to introduce a national health insurance scheme. However, there is a paucity of information on household preferences and willingness to pay for health insurance attributes that may guide the design of an acceptable health insurance scheme. Our study sought to assess household preferences and willingness to pay for health insurance in Kampala city using a discrete choice experiment. Methods This study was conducted from 16th February 2020 to 10th April 2020 on 240 households in the Kawempe division of Kampala city stratified into slum and non-slum communities in order to get a representative sample of the area. We purposively selected the communities that represented slum and non-slum communities and thereafter applied systematic sampling in the selection of the households that participated in the study from each of the communities. Four household and policy-relevant attributes were used in the experimental design of the study. Each respondent attended to 9 binary choice sets of health insurance plans that included one fixed choice set. Data were analyzed using mixed logit models. Results Households in both the non-slum and slum communities had a high preference for health insurance plans that included both private and public health care providers as compared to plans that included public health care providers only (non-slum coefficient β = 0.81, P < 0.05; slum β = 0.87, p < 0.05) and; health insurance plans that covered extended family members as compared to plans that had limitations on the number of family members allowed (non-slum β = 0.44, P < 0.05; slum β = 0.36, p < 0.05). Households in non-slum communities, in particular, had a high preference for health insurance plans that covered chronic illnesses and major surgeries to other plans (0.97 β, P < 0.05). Our findings suggest that location of the household influences willingness to pay with households from non-slum communities willing to pay more for the preferred attributes. Conclusion Potential health insurance schemes should consider including both private and public health care providers and allow more household members to be enrolled in both slum and non-slum communities. However, the inclusion of more HH members should be weighed against the possible depletion of resources and other attributes. Potential health insurance schemes should also prioritize coverage for chronic illnesses and major surgeries in non-slum communities, in particular, to make the scheme attractive and acceptable for these communities.

scholarly journals Willingness to Join and Pay for Social Health Insurance Scheme Among employees in Debere Berhan Town, Ethiopia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wassie Negash Mekonnen ◽  
Mesfin Wondaferew ◽  
Adugnaw Birhane Mekonen
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Contingent Valuation Method ◽  
Social Health Insurance ◽  
Health Insurance Scheme ◽  
Social Health ◽  
P Value ◽  
Multivariable Logistic Regression Analysis ◽  
Insurance Scheme ◽  
The Government

Abstract Back ground: Social Health Insurance improves access to health services among civil servants by removing catastrophic health expenditure. In Ethiopia, only 7.3% of the population covered by health insurance. Due to this fact the government of Ethiopia initiated Social Health Insurance scheme to be applied in the formal employers and employees with compulsory membership of the scheme. This study therefore aimed to assess willingness to join and pay for social health insurance scheme among government and private employees in Debere Berhan Town, Ethiopia .Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted .At mean time Stratified sampling technique was used to select 619 employees. A modified dichotomous contingent valuation method (CVM) was applied to elicit employees’ willingness to pay. Bi-variant and multivariable logistic regression analysis was done . Then the result at 95% CI and P value <0.05 was declared as variables have statistically significant association. Results: A total of 619 employees with response rate of 97.8% were participated in the study. About 406 (65%) of the respondents were willing to join to Social Health Insurance scheme. Of which 113 (27.8%) of employees were willing to pay the government proposed 3% premium. The employee’s average willingness to pay for social health insurance scheme was 1.88% of their monthly salary. In this study the odds of respondents who had degree and above (AOR=3.608, 95%CI 1.177-11.061), employees good perception on quality health service (AOR=3.150, 95% CI 1.140-8.699) and employees who perceive benefit packages of social health insurance as enough (AOR=5.229, 95%CI: 2.230-12 .594) were higher than the counter parts. Conclusion: Employees willingness to join of the Social Health Insurance scheme(SHIS) is low and very low number of employees agree to pay the government proposed premium for SHIS. So decision-makers should emphasize to revise the benefit packages and the premiums to be contributed. likewise insurance agency and all responsible bodies should aware the society about the importance of social health insurance for the employees.

scholarly journals Handling medical negligence: necessity of a proper system

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-371
Author(s):  
Nuwadatta Subedi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Standard Of Care ◽  
Legal Issue ◽  
Medical Negligence ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
The Government

The issue of medical negligence has been catching attention of many people nowadays. With advancement of technology in medical field, many incurable diseases of past time can now be managed well at the cost of burdening expenditure. This   has resulted in obvious expectations to the patient and their families that any ailment can be cured from the medical procedures and therapies. When these expectations are not met in terms of complications or death of the near ones, people get frustrated and tend to allege health care providers against medically negligent.Negligence are of two types; civil negligence where the doctors are alleged to have lost simple degree of care and attention to the patients thereby causing damage whereas in criminal negligence, the doctors grossly deviate from the standard of care and competence or perform activities which are understood prima facie as a crime, for eg: performing criminal abortion, organ transplantation against the law etc.Whatever the type of negligence, there are legal measures to file complaint against the doctors who are alleged to have caused negligence. Gone are the days when people regarded doctors near to gods. Medical service also falls under the consumer protection act where the patients are the consumers and medical personnel, the service providers. The patients have rights to get quality medical service under this act. If the patients or their relatives are dissatisfied with the medical service rendered to them by the health care providers, they have the right to lodge complaint to the compensation committee of the district in which chief district officer (CDO) is the chairman in each district. If there is an issue of criminal negligence, the complaint can also be filed in the concerned court.In some circumstances, when the patient develops complications or dies, the attendants accuse the doctors for the failure in treatment and protest in the hospital premises rather than opting the legal way of charging them against negligence. The health professionals are at times threatened and forced to apologize in public. Most of the times, they demand for compensation and many direct benefits to the relatives of the deceased. The hospitals and the health professionals feel insecure and often they have agreed to the demands put forth to peacefully settle the issue and to get prevented from defamation. The government is also unable to provide security. Similar cases have been reported time and again in Nepal, creating a sense of lawlessness in the country.When deciding whether a doctor is held liable for negligence, the “standard of care” should be analysed. It means the practice should be an accepted one and standard, such that doctor of the similar filed and competence would have also opted the same procedure in given circumstances. Even when a doctor has duly acted opting standard procedure, still there can be chances that a patient can develop complications. Every human body cannot react exactly same to a medical intervention though that may be a scientifically proven one as there can be chances of medical misadventure. The doctors should have possessed reasonable degree of care and skill when he is attending the patient. According to Bolam’s test, a person is said to have inappropriate standard, and becomes negligent, if it is proven that he had failed to do what a reasonable person would do in the circumstances.1 The degree of care and skill should be comparable to an average doctor in similar settings. In order to analyse these issues, expert opinion from reputable and unbiased experts of the similar field of medicine should be taken. In case of death due to alleged medical negligence, the dead body should be autopsied by qualified experts in Forensic Medicine. This can explain so many facts about the deceased which can be helpful to decide whether negligence has factually taken. It highlights the need of taking opinion from the experts of the concerned field by the councils framed to settle the cases of medical negligence, especially the consumer protection council, Nepal Medical Council, etc.It is a high time for the government to play role to address to this sensitive and quai-legal issue. If this trend is not ended, the trust of patients towards the doctors may nullify. The doctors also cannot work effectively when there is no safe working environment and may begin to have tendency to abandon handling critical cases with a fear of vulnerability to defamation if not physical assault in worst case. The situation is ultimately disastrous to the entire health care system. The very sensitive issue of health care delivery cannot be compared to any other commercial issues. The proper mechanism of addressing the issue of medical negligence should be practiced alongside encouragement from governmental urge to come up with better medicolegal systems in this regard. This is highly essential for balancing expectations of the patients and performance of medical professionals.

scholarly journals Acceptance for Social Health Insurance among Health Professionals in Government Hospitals, Mekelle City, North Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Alemtsehay Tewele ◽  
Mezgebu Yitayal ◽  
Adane Kebede
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Social Health Insurance ◽  
Social Health ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Government Hospitals ◽  
Mekelle City ◽  
Monthly Salary

Background. Ethiopia is one of the countries with high out-of-pocket payments leading to catastrophic health expenditure. The government of Ethiopia introduced social health insurance (SHI) scheme with the overall objective of achieving universal health care access. Studying health professionals’ acceptance to pay for social health insurance is crucial for the successful implementation of the scheme. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the acceptance of social health insurance and its associated factors among health professionals in government hospitals, Mekelle city, North Ethiopia. Methods. An institution-based cross-sectional study design was used. The study participants were selected using systematic random sampling. Data were collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models at a 5% level of significance, and odds ratios with 95% CI level were used to determine the association between the health professionals’ acceptance of health insurance and explanatory variables. Results. The study revealed that 62.5% of the respondents were willing to participate in the SHI scheme in which 74.9% were willing to pay 3% or more of their monthly salary. Health professionals’ acceptance for SHI significantly associated with monthly salary (AOR = 9.49; 95% CI: 2.51, 35.86), awareness about SHI (AOR = 3.89; 95% CI: 1.05, 14.28), history of difficulty in covering medical bills (AOR = 6.2; 95% CI: 2.42, 15.87), attitudes towards social health insurance (AOR = 7.57; 95% CI: 3.14, 18.21), and perceived quality of health care services if SHI implemented (AOR = 2.89; 95% CI: 1.18, 7.07). Conclusion. The study indicated that there were still a high proportion of health professionals who were not willing to pay for SHI. Therefore, strengthening awareness creation, creating awareness about SHI, promoting the scheme using the different channels of communication to bring about favorable attitude, and providing health care services with required standard quality could help to increase the acceptance of SHI by health professionals.

Covid-19 and its financial effects on the dental fraternity and health-care workers: A literature review

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 628-631
Author(s):  
Devangi Agrawal ◽  
Namisha Khara ◽  
Bhushan Mundada ◽  
Nitin Bhola ◽  
Rajiv Borle
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Dental Procedures ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Dental Practices ◽  
Precautionary Measures ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up

In the wake of the current outbreak of novel Covid-19, which is now declared as a 'pandemic' by the WHO, people around the globe have been dealing with a lot of difficulties. This virus had come into light in December 2019 and since then has only grown exponentially. Amongst the most affected are the ones who have been working extremely hard to eradicate it, which includes the hospitals, dental fraternity and the health-care workers. These people are financially burdened due to limited practise. In the case of dentistry, to avoid the spread of the virus, only emergency treatments are being approved, and the rest of the standard procedures have been put on hold. In some cases, as the number of covid cases is rising, many countries are even trying to eliminate the emergency dental procedures to divert the finances towards the treatment of covid suffering patients. What we need to realise is that this is probably not the last time that we are facing such a situation. Instead of going down, we should set up guidelines with appropriate precautionary measures together with the use of standardised PPEs. The government should also establish specific policies to support dental practices and other health-care providers. Together, we can fight this pandemic and come out stronger.

scholarly journals Perception and Willingness to Maintain Continuity of Care by Parents of Children with Asthma in Taiwan

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 3600
Author(s):  
Christy Pu ◽  
Yu-Chen Tseng ◽  
Gau-Jun Tang ◽  
Yen-Hsiung Lin ◽  
Chien-Heng Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Continuity Of Care ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Exact Matching ◽  
Extra Effort ◽  
Referral Management ◽  
Children With Asthma ◽  
Outpatient Departments

To investigate caregivers’ attitudes toward continuity of care (COC) and their willingness to maintain continuity for their children with asthma under a national health insurance (NHI) system without strict referral management. We sampled 825 individuals from six pediatric outpatient departments in different parts of Taiwan from 2017 to 2018. We used a contingent valuation with a payment card method. Post-stratification weighting adjustment and coarsened exact matching were utilized. Multiple logistic regression was used to compare the willingness to pay and spend extra time maintaining continuity by parents. More than 80% of caregivers in the asthma group believed having a primary pediatrician was important for children’s health. Only 27.5% and 15.8% of caregivers in the asthma and control groups, respectively, believed changing pediatricians would negatively affect therapeutic outcomes. Regression analysis showed that the predicted willingness to pay for the asthma and non-asthma groups were NT$508 (SD = 196) and NT$402 (SD = 172), respectively, and there was a significant positive dose–response relationship between household income and willingness to pay for maintaining health care provider continuity. Caregivers’ free choices among health care providers may reduce willingness to spend extra effort to maintain high COC. Caregivers should be educated on the importance of COC.

Umowy o udzielanie świadczeń opieki zdrowotnej zawierane przez Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia (leczenie w ramach ubezpieczenia zdrowotnego) a leczenie na zasadach komercyjnych. Implikacje prawne i praktyczne

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-151
Author(s):  
Paweł Lipowski
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Public Payer ◽  
Universal Health

The aim of this study is to identify the legal characteristics of contracts for the health care services provided by a public payer, i.e. the National Health Fund (NFZ) as part of treatment covered by universal health insurance, as compared to those provided by the health care providers with public or private legal status. This issue is discussed in relation to the legal conditions for the treatment of patients on a commercial basis in those institutions (private or public) which have contracts for the provision of healthcare services under the general health insurance (so-called contracts). The discussion is presented based on author’s own observations, resulting both from his scientific studies in the field of medical law and his work in various entities operating in the health care system.

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