OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of a performance-based financing scheme on maternal and neonatal health service quality in Malawi. METHODS We conducted a non-randomized controlled before and after study to evaluate the effects of district- and facility-level performance incentives for health workers and management teams. We assessed changes in the facilities' essential drug stocks, equipment...

Health system financing is a critical factor in securing universal health care and achieving equity in access and payment. The human rights framework offers valuable guidance for designing a financing strategy that meets these goals. This article presents a rights-based approach to health care financing developed by the human right to health care movement in the United States. Grounded in a hum...

A pay for performance (P4P) scheme termed Quality Based Financing (QBF) was introduced in Norway in January 2014. QBF was designed as a pilot project for three years and covers all the public hospitals and public funded private hospitals. The main objective is to test the use of financial incentives to motivate the hospitals to increase overall quality and patient safety. QBF is based on how we...

To achieve universal health coverage (UHC), a range of health-financing reforms, including removal of user fees and the expansion of social health insurance, have been implemented in many countries. While the focus of much research and discussion on UHC has been on the impact of health-financing reforms on population coverage, health-service utilization and out-of-pocket payments, the implicati...

BACKGROUND In Austria, financing health care -and even more so mental health care- is characterized by a mix of federal and provincial responsibilities, lack of uniformity in service provision and service providers, and diverse funding arrangements. The division between financing structures for health care and social care makes the situation even more complex. This state of affairs results in v...