Regulation of the private health sector in India

The expansion of the private sector in India has forced the passages of a number of regulations to promote quality of care and protect consumers. This has expanded the role of government in developing and enforcing regulations in three areas of the health sector: drugs, medical practice, and health facilities. These regulations have been promulgated by both national and state governments. Three particular Acts are examined: the Consumer Protection Act, Medical Councils, and the Nursing Home Act. These Acts have provided basic guidelines for regulation of certain aspects of the health sector, but have also created new challenges, as consumers have become more involved in monitoring health service delivery. The challenge for the future will be to ensure the quality and efficiency of health services in both the public and private sectors through these regulatory mechanisms while seeking to promote national health objectives.     

Working with the private sector for child health

Private sector providers are the most commonly consulted source of care for child illnesses in many countries, offering significant opportunities to expand the reach of essential child health services and products. Yet collaboration with private providers presents major challenges - the suitability and quality of the services they provide is often questionable and governments' capacity to regulate them is limited. This article assesses the actual and potential contributions of the private sector to child health, and classifies and evaluates public sector strategies to promote and rationalize the contributions of private sector actors. Governments and international organizations can use a variety of strategies to collaborate with and influence private sector actors to improve child health - including contracting, regulating, financing and social marketing, training, coordinating and informing the public. These mutually reinforcing strategies can both improve the quality of services currently delivered in the private sector, and expand and rationalize the coverage of these services. One lesson from this review is that the private sector is very heterogeneous. At the country level, feasible strategies depend on the potential of the different components of the private sector and the capacity of governments and their partners for collaboration. To date, experience with private sector strategies offers considerable promise for children's health, but also raises many questions about the feasibility and impact of these strategies. Where possible, future interventions should be designed as experiments, with careful assessment of the intervention design and the environment in which they are implemented.     

The role of health insurance in the growth of the private health sector in Korea

The Korean health care system has been recognized by other countries for its rapid expansion of national health insurance. The government's policy of promoting the private sector, relying on market forces for various allocation decisions, and using the fee-for-service payment system has created a number of challenges for the Korean health system. Among these are rapid growth of health care expenditure, proliferation and duplication of medical technology, and lack of access for low-income groups due to high out-of-pocket payments for services covered by insurance. A number of recommendations are made concerning national health policy, modifying health insurance, and developing political consensus for bringing about health reform.     

The first private sector health insurance company in Ghana

This article analyses the development of Ghana's first private sector health insurance company, the Nationwide Medical Insurance Company. Taking both policy and practical considerations into account (stakeholders' perspectives, economic viability, equity and efficiency), it is structured around key questions which help to define the position and roles of stakeholders--the insurance agency itself, contributors, beneficiaries, and providers--and how they relate to one another and the insurance scheme. These relationships will to a large extent determine Nationwide's long-term success or failure. By creating a unique alliance between physician providers and private sector companies, Nationwide has used employers' interest in cost containment and physicians' interest in expanding their client base as an entrée into the virgin territory of health insurance, and created a hybrid variety of private sector insurance with some of the attributes of a health maintenance organization or managed care. The case study is unusual in that, while public sector programs are often open to academic scrutiny, researchers have rarely had access to detailed data on the establishment of a single private sector insurance company in a developing country. Given that Ghana is planning to launch a national health insurance plan, the article concludes by considering what the experience of this private sector initiative might have to offer public sector planners.     

Beyond equity: Swedish health policy and the private sector

The rapid development of private medicine in Sweden poses a challenge to that nation's traditional commitment to equity and a public system of health care. Economic constraints in public-sector spending, physician intent in private practice, popular interest in individual choice, and criticism of the public system have been the stimulus. The dominant Social Democrats will likely accept those elements of the private sector that are ideologically compatible, but resist others.     

Public policy and private sector provision of health services

Public sector policies often try to extend access and redirect public resources, depending on private sector actions. These strategies focus on reducing demand, improving efficiency, and generating increased revenues in the public sector. In order to provide incentives for efficiency, acquire capital, and redirect limited public resources to public priorities, there must be an expanded role for the private market in the provision of health services. This presents opportunities to improve the focus of resources on high-priority health activities in the public sector and to make more effective and efficient use of the resources of the private sector. The authors discuss the form that such policies may take. However, while the overall set of options available to policy makers can be identified, what is an effective strategy in one country may be neither appropriate nor feasible in another. The challenge to policy research is not to identify what works, but rather to understand the conditions that make a policy effective in some settings but not in others. The objective is not to prescribe the actions to take but to understand the factors that create the current experience in a specific setting.     

The "unexpected" growth of the private health sector in Greece

The article analyses the situation which exists in the private health sector in Greece, it presents data on the growth of the private sector and discusses the reasons for this phenomenon in relation to privatisation trends in other European countries. The growth of private health care in Greece in the last 10 years is evident despite governmental attempts to minimise its role through the development of the National Health System in 1983 and the legislative restrictions on the private sector. Private health expenditure has increased, reaching 3.9% of the country's GNP (43% of the total expenditure in health) in 2000. The number of private hospitals and hospital beds has decreased (hospitals decreased from 468 in 1990 to 218 in 2000 and private beds decreased from 25,075 in 1980 to 15,806 in 2000) mainly because of the reduction in the number of small private hospitals. On the other hand, private doctors and private diagnostic centres have significantly increased. This situation is believed to be attributed mainly to the provision of inadequate and low quality public health services which have caused widespread dissatisfaction among the general public, and factors associated to improved standards of living, as well as the rapid growth of private insurance.     

Work satisfaction of medical doctors in the South African private health sector

PURPOSE: This paper aims to determine the extent of work satisfaction among general practitioners and to examine the variables influencing the different aspects of their work satisfaction. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This was a cross-sectional survey of general practitioners in the private sector, conducted throughout South Africa, using a self-administered questionnaire. Univariate statistical models were used to evaluate levels of satisfaction with various facets of work, while inferences about the effect of several independent variables on the work satisfaction facets were drawn from multiple regression models using a stepwise regression procedure. FINDINGS: Doctors were satisfied with the social and personal aspects of their work and dissatisfied with the practice environment pressures and work setting issues. Overall, doctors were dissatisfied with their work and their careers. Being female, working in large groups, having been in practice for 20 years or more, having a high proportion of insured patients and being incentivised to conserve resources were significant predictors of lower overall satisfaction. Clinical freedom, positive perceptions of managed care strategies, remuneration on a fee-for-service basis and working in small groups were predictors of greater overall satisfaction. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper shows that, although doctors were generally dissatisfied, there are opportunities for enhancing work satisfaction and care provision if policymakers, administrators and health care managers work in collaboration with doctors to provide the specific working conditions that health professionals desire.     

Reproductive technologies and the private sector -- implications for women's health

Many scientific and medical techniques exist to intervene and alter the natural process of pregnancy and childbirth. Examples include contraceptive techniques such as the contraceptive pill and IUDs, instrumental and caesarian deliveries, amniocentesis and ultrasound, in-vitro fertilization, test tube babies, and artificial wombs. These services are provided by governments and private medicare institutions. Little, however, is known about private sector involvement in this area except that the number of private facilities is increasing in both urban and rural areas of India, and that private facilities include clinics, nursing homes, diagnostic centers, and corporate hospitals for both inpatient and outpatient care. With practitioners enjoying wide latitude to recommend and carry out tests and services, unlimited profit-making potential exists. Nursing homes focus primarily upon pregnancy, childbirth, and family planning. 40% of nursing homes and corporate hospitals in Hyderabad had ultrasound testing facilities, while amniocentesis is conducted widely in private clinics and hospitals around the country. 84% of private gynecologists in Bombay conduct sex determination tests which often lead to the abortion of female fetuses. 73% of nursing homes in Delhi had an ultrasound machine, with 80% of facilities using the machines for sex determination testing. Concerns over the cost of raising and marrying off daughters lures clients to test the sex of fetuses and not carry females to term. Hospitals and clinics also capitalize upon the social stigma of marital infertility by promoting the treatment of infertility and in-vitro fertilization. Moreover, responding to government incentives to provide comprehensive family planning services, many private clinics and nursing homes claim to offer services even when they do not. Private nursing homes and clinics offer services to maximize profit. As public spending for programs continues to be slashed and the role of private institutions increases, more attention needs to be given to monitoring the quality of services.     

India's family planning market and opportunities for the private sector: An analysis using the total market approach

The private (commercial) sector in India can complement public sector for family planning services, but the roadmap to engage these two sectors remains a challenge. The total market approach (TMA) offers a strategy by understanding the comparative advantage of public, commercial, and nonprofit sectors. We estimated TMA indicators using data of four rounds of the National Family Health Surveys: 1992‐93, 1998‐99, 2005‐06, and 2015‐16. The contraceptive prevalence of modern methods in India did not increase in recent years, but the number of users increased, and so did the market size for the commercial sector. In rural areas, the current market size in 2015‐16 (75 million) failed to reach its potential size in 1992‐93 (84 million). In urban areas, the market of modern contraceptives is mostly composed of the users from higher wealth, and a high percentage of users obtain contraceptives from subsidized sources. The family planning market of northern part of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and of Northeast India are in the “early” stage and need more demand generation; “matured” markets are mostly concentrated in and around big metros. Subsidization in urban areas should be offered to the targeted population who need family planning products and services at low cost.