Washington, DC — July 8, 2021 — The Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage today launched Season 2 of its Provider Payment Mechanisms (PPM) Podcast. This season, “The Who, What and How of Paying for Health Services for Universal Health Coverage,” is focused on sharing the experiences of seven countries implementing provider payment reforms, solutions to common roadblocks, and improving strategic purchasing in their journey to achieve universal health coverage (UHC).
Results for Development (R4D) serves as the technical facilitator of JLN’s Primary Health Care Financing and Payment Collaborative, which developed the podcast. The Collaborative is made up of 64 technical experts, policymakers and implementors from 20 member countries who work together to develop practical solutions and distill health financing and strategic purchasing best practices to achieve universal health coverage, or health for all.
“In season two, we’ll chat with country implementers from Mongolia, Malaysia, Liberia, Moldova, Egypt, and the Philippines,” said Dr. Kamaliah Noh, a JLN technical country facilitator and senior fellow at R4D. “We’ll be discussing how they collaborate, co-create, and implement solutions to roadblocks and obstacles in their journey to achieve UHC. They are really the role models of country-driven, country-led learning.”
In 2019, the JLN Primary Health Care Financing and Payment Collaborative developed its first podcast mini-series to promote joint learning via an accessible learning tool that captures country insights and experiences in the voices of implementers. The episodes of Season 1 — which have been listened to more than 1,000 times — describe the core building blocks of strong provider payment systems, including, improving benefit packages, costing to improve the design of provider payment, and utilizing provider payment to achieve health system goals.
Building on this, Season 2 delves deeper into strategic purchasing as a lever for UHC, utilizing data systems to make strategic purchasing decisions; and incentivizing providers to provide quality health services.
Overview of episodes
- Introduction: Season 2 kicks off with JLN country facilitators, Dr. Kamaliah Noh and Tsolmon Tsilaajav, reflecting on the success of Season 1 and how podcast serve as an accessible and dynamic tool for sharing implementation experience. Dr. Kamaliah and Tsolmon also discuss the three topics that will be covered in Season 2. Access the episode here.
- Episode 1, Use of data for strategic purchasing: Understanding how health care providers are responding to incentives, whether objectives for service delivery and other goals are being achieved, and whether any unintended consequences are occurring can help reduce waste and improve the patient experience. This episode looks at how claims and other routine administrative data are often underutilized because of a lack of capacity within the purchasing agency, weak or underdeveloped data systems, or fragmentation in information systems. This first episode dives into the implementation experiences from Mongolia and Bahrain to understand how data analytics have been used to make provider payment more strategic. Access the episode here.
- Episode 2, Incentivizing quality as strategic purchasers — experience with financial and non-financial incentives: Strategic purchasing can be a key lever to achieve health system goals including equitable access to high-quality health services. This requires providing the right incentives and yet there is no one-size-fits-all solution. In the second episode, JLN member countries delve into a common challenge — how to design the right incentives and encourage health providers to deliver high-quality health services. They discuss country experiences incentivizing quality, both financial and non-financial incentives. The episode also explores what works where, how and why. Malaysia, Liberia and Moldova members share strategies, lessons and best practices. Access the episode here.
- Episode 3, Strategic purchasing as a lever for UHC: Provider payment mechanisms — and any associated innovations or strategic improvements — depend a great deal on the local context in which they are implemented. In the third episode, JLN members from Egypt and the Philippines who have started implementation of big-bang reforms recently introduced legislation to expand UHC. They also discuss their progress so far in implementing these reforms, how they are setting up their strategic purchasers, how they have selected providers for the defined package and how provider payment is being leveraged to address health system goals. Access the episode here.
- Wrap-up: Bringing It All Together: This final, shorter episode will be the capstone for Season 2. It explores common challenges and shared lessons from across the interviews and answer questions from listeners. Access the episode here.
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About Results for Development
Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents around the world — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — to create strong systems that support healthy, educated people. We help our partners move from knowing their goal to knowing how to reach it. We combine global expertise in health, education and nutrition with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation and access to peer problem-solving networks. Together with our partners, we build self-sustaining systems that serve everyone and deliver lasting results. Then we share what we learn so others can achieve results for development, too. For more information, visit our website at: www.r4d.org.
