For many people, particularly those who are poor and live in rural areas, health care may be provided by a myriad of informal providers delivering services of varied quality. The private sector, which primarily focuses on curative care, varies in size across countries.
2 Despite these changes, in most LMICs, the public sector still remains the backbone of health service delivery, especially for preventive health services and services that address global health priorities, such as childhood illnesses, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. At the same time, the health care market has also seen a growing role of the private sector in service delivery. For instance, in many countries, public-sector facilities have been granted more autonomy and user fees have been introduced. Since the late 1990s, the health sector in LMICs has seen transformative changes consistent with broader societal changes in favor of liberalism, privatization, and citizen emancipation.
#Universal digital copy free
This is exemplified by the original 1948 tax-funded British National Health Service model in which health services were provided free of cost at the point of care by public civil servants in government-owned facilities. In many LMICs, traditionally, the government was responsible for all key health system functions, including priority setting, financing, allocation of inputs, and provision of health services. To understand the possible role of digital technologies for health financing in LMICs, one must first describe their health systems and identify the health financing challenges they face. 1 However, the role and potential of digital technologies in financing health care in the context of health systems strengthening is poorly understood. There is a strong movement promoting digital technologies as a means of strengthening health systems, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including innovations for demand generation, better management of information, and improved efficiency of health workers.
The development and adoption of effective solutions that align well with the universal health coverage agenda will require strong partnerships between stakeholders and enough proactive stewardship by authorities. We also sketch an agenda for future research and action for digital strategies for health financing.
#Universal digital copy software
Some examples include a mobile-health wallet application used in Kenya that encourages households to put money aside for future health expenses an online software platform developed by a startup in Tanzania in partnership with a private insurance provider to give individuals and families the opportunity to choose among different health coverage options and digital maps by a number of startups that bring together data on health facility locations and capacity, including equipment, staff, and types of services offered. We illustrate our points by presenting some recent innovations in digital technologies for financing health care, identifying their contributions and their limits. In this paper, we examine how digital health technologies can be used to enhance these health financing functions in low- and middle-income countries and can thus contribute to progress toward universal health coverage. Countries finance health care using a combination of 3 main functions: raising resources for health, pooling resources, and purchasing health services.
0 kommentar(er)
