Financial risk allocation and provider incentives in hospital-insurer contracts in The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT: In healthcare systems with a purchaser-provider split, contracts are an important tool to define the conditions for the provision of healthcare services. Financial risk allocation can be used in contracts as a mechanism to influence provider behavior and stimulate providers to provide efficient and high-quality care. In this paper, we provide new insights into financial risk allocation between insurers and hospitals in a changing contracting environment. We used unique nationwide data from 901 hospital-insurer contracts in The Netherlands over the years 2013, 2016, and 2018. Based on descriptive and regression analyses, we find that hospitals were exposed to more financial risk over time, although this increase was somewhat counteracted by an increasing use of risk-mitigating measures betw

SUBMITTER: Gajadien CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9002227 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature