Opportunities for Public- Private Cooperation in e-Health Care Implementation in the Euro-Atlantic Community

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Opportunities for Public- Private Cooperation in
e-Health Care Implementation in the
Euro-Atlantic Community

• George W. Handy
• Center for Strategic and International Studies
• FIRST NATIONAL E-HEALTH CONFERENCE
• February 1, 2006
• Sofia, Bulgaria

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CSIS Action Commissions Program

• The CSIS Action Commissions Program has for 13
  years focused on two forces for change
• Responsible government - business cooperation
  to increase economic growth
• Focusing action on practical steps that will
  have near-term impact
•  
• Until recently, health care has been outside of
  the agenda.
• Lack of political will for reform
• Lack of resources

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Action Commissions Health Care Project for CEE

• The Euro-Atlantic Action Commission began a
  project for health care modernization in Central
  and Eastern Europe in 2005.
• Clear aim for sharing global experiences
• Organization that includes Johns Hopkins
  Bloomberg School of Public Health and top U.S.
  and E.U. businesses.
• A five phase plan.

 
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KEY AREAS
The Johns Hopkins and U.S. and E.U. businesses
have outlined primary areas for next steps in
health care modernization 1. Financing of health
care 2. Health insurance and coverage 3.
Purchasing of health care services, including
methods of payment to providers 4. The depth of
the benefits package 5. The role of private
insurance and private sector in health services
delivery 6. Strengthening primary health
care 7. Management and autonomy for public
hospitals including privatization of specific
hospital functions or wards. 8. Human resources
in the health system (including management
capacity)
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KEY AREAS
9. Pharmaceutical products 10. Medical
devices 11. Monitoring and improving health care
quality 12. e-Health 13. Public health
issues 14. Factors influencing demand (co-pays,
etc) 15. Creating competitive markets
including privatization and initiatives to
attract private capital 16. Social, political,
and administrative obstacles 17. The broader
context external stakeholders, funding, and
support 18. Role of international institutions
IBRD, IFC, EIB, EBRD.   . The key question is
not what to do, its how.
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PRIMARY ISSUES

• Several fundamental issues are emerging, among
  them are
• Estimating budget costs and deciding where to
  reduce or add resources.
• Estimating revenue flows and matching revenue
  with costs.
• Determining how to efficiently transition from
  current system statues to more modern operations.
  
• ... Each issue and most areas will benefit from
  e-health applications, and from business and
  other private sector experience on options for
  e-health applications.

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PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPP)

• Leveraging public-private cooperation on e-health
  in a collective framework the action
  commissions.
• Business and other private sector players are
  working together to share experience in defining
  priority problems that could be addressed by
  e-health applications and identifying potential
  solutions.
• Solutions highlight types of service or
  product that worked in best practices as
  opposed to brand name.
• Private sector experience also includes proven
  approaches for implementing possible solutions.
• Results are presented as options for government
  consideration

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STEPS AND STRUCTURE

• What are the steps and structure of this action
  commissions PPP project?
• Identified e-health interest of Bulgarian
  Ministry of Health.
• Organized an e-health team and basic action
  plan.
• Began assessing problem areas and possible
  options for solving problems through e-health
  applications.
• Will finalize options and present to ministry.
• Suggest specific projects for e-Health
  implementation.
• Will present results to neighboring countries
  during Health Care Modernization Conference in
  Washington in May.

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BENEFITS

• There are some added benefits to this collective
  PPP approach
• e-Health is examined in framework of larger
  scope health care assessment
• Information and ideas (non-proprietary) are
  shared broadly to the advantage of business
  intelligence and government awareness.
• New ideas and sources of expertise are more
  likely to be identified.
• Open and transparent approach eliminates
  sources of misunderstanding that would occur in
  future contractual relations between government
  and e-Health businesses.