Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109481

Kineret Oren, Avishay Goldberg, PhD, and Joseph S. Pliskin, PhD. Department of Health Systems Management, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.Box 653, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel, 972-8-6477417, kinoren@bgumail.bgu.ac.il

Background: The health needs of the public will always exceed the resources available; therefore policy makers are constantly looking for creative solutions in order to control health care expenditures. Consequently, controlling expenditures on hospital services, which are a key component of the health care budget, is a central issue of reform in many countries. In 1995, as part of a government initiative to contain expenditures on hospital services, Israel went through a major health policy reform via the implementation of a hospital revenue cap (HRC). The HRC is a global prospective reimbursement method which sets a yearly ceiling on the general public hospitals' revenues. Objective: To evaluate the HRC by examining the attitudes of policy makers and senior managers from the Ministry of Health, general public hospitals and health plans towards the existing model and alternative models. Methodology: Questionnaires distributed by mail, quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Results: Of the target population 69% responded. Participants' attitudes towards the HRC were mainly positive and supported maintaining it with the implementation of several revisions to rectify the main problems. Contrary to the hypothesis, no significant association between the participants' sector and attitude was found. The study reveals the main pros and cons of the Israeli model, necessary changes to be implemented and suggestions for improved models. Conclusions: The findings indicate the importance of the HRC. However, careful implementation, audit and periodic revisions are needed in order to maximize its positive impact.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Identify the pros and cons of using a HRC to contain expenditures on hospital services as learned from the Israeli experience.
• To assess the possibility of applying a similar model in other countries and other fields.

Keywords: Public Hospitals, Health Care Reform

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation