Population-based financing: The future of healthcare?

In this chapter the authors describe an integrated contract (population based financing) between health care payers, such as governments and/or health insurers) and different health care providers. The chapter considers a simple and stylized theoretical model involving a health care payer and two different health care providers (e.g., general practitioners and hospitals) and compares different contracting options. Based on the theoretical model, the authors argue that population bases financing offers better incentives for the coordination in the provision of health care services. Contracts should be augmented with quality outcome measures to provide incentives to prevent under treatment. The chapter gives examples of integrated contracting in the US, Germany and a proposed experiment in the Netherlands.