Helping Communities Manage risks from the ground up.
CBHI for Quality of Care
Research
Project Title:Using Health Insurance To Improve Quality of Care
PROJECT CATEGORY:Research
OBJECTIVE:
Investigate how insurance can address informational asymmetries and the quality of care.
BACKGROUND:
Access to health care, as measured in the number of facility and doctor visits, has improved in many low income settings where microinsurance has been implemented; however, the actual quality of care, as measured by accuracy of the diagnosis and treatment, available to household remains low.
Low income households are particularly disadvantaged because their limited financial capacity not only affects their ability to access high-quality providers, but also because the less competent doctors might put in less effort. The informational challenges and subsequent uncertainty means that households, often, do not know where to go for treatment, what type of treatment they need, or what price to pay for the treatment.
PROJECT CONCEPT:
The FAI project is looking at the relationship between the care received by the clients and the insurers' role in ensuring quality of care. Our approach includes a qualitative analysis of existing schemes along with a review of academic literature and institutional case studies. The research is supplemented with interviews and focus group discussions with practitioners, academics, donors, policy makers, and clients.
PARTNERS:
The project has been conducted in collaboration with Financial Access Initiative and the New York University (NYU), New York.
FUNDING:
The Financial Access Initiative is financially supporting the project.
DURATION:2009-2010
COUNTRY:International
LOCATION:
Field work : Pune, India.
The main researchers are based in New Delhi (India), New York (USA) and London (UK).
CONTACT:Ralf Rademacher, Director of Research & Training, ralf@mia.org.in
PROGRESS:
The project was initiated in February 2009. The field work was carried in Pune, India, in partnership with Uplift India Association from June to August 2009. Report writing has been finalised.
