Euro Observer Autumn 2010

Spending on hospital services has historically been one of the largest shares of total health care expenditures for the majority of countries in Europe and the developed world.1 According to the OECD, hospital spending on average accounted for approximately onethird of total current expenditure on health care in European OECD countries in 2008, ranging from 26.7% in Slovakia to 46.9% in Sweden (See Table 1). In some countries in the WHO European region, particularly in CIS countries, inpatient expenditures as a share of total health care expenditures has at times been over 70%.2 As hospitals continue to consume a considerable share of health care resources, policymakers have looked to new payment strategies to ensure that care is delivered efficiently. Hospital financiers are faced with the difficult task of designing systems aligning patient needs and provider incentives in order to obtain the best possible value for money.