Provider Payment Mechanisms Podcast
The Who, What, and How of Paying for Health Services for Universal Health Coverage
Welcome to the Provider Payment Mechanisms (PPM) Podcast: The Who, What and How of Paying for Health Services for Universal Health Coverage ↗. This miniseries was created in collaboration with technical experts and implementers from over 14 countries as a part of the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) Provider Payment Mechanisms technical initiative. The goal of this series was to create an accessible learning tool that captured insights and experiences of global experts in the voices of implementors themselves. The interviews that make up this miniseries represent the experiences of nine countries as well as synthesized learnings from technical experts.
Episode 1: Joint Learning
The miniseries kicks off with a discussion of the joint learning model, with expert inputs from Kenya, Argentina, and Nigeria, on the role the JLN has played in their journey toward universal health coverage (UHC). Dr. Isabel Maina, from Kenya, explains the importance of taking a multi-sectoral approach to achieving UHC, discussing the need for innovative thinking and collaborative problem solving that form the foundation of the JLN. Dr. Humberto Silva, from Argentina, discusses how knowledge is shared—both within and across countries—and how this sharing of information is key to achieving the type of co-creation and joint learning that is essential and fosters a country’s own UHC efforts. Finally, Dr. Shamsuddeen Sa’ad discusses how Nigeria translated the JLN approach to the country level, creating a subnational JLN to facilitate the shared learning between states to address common barriers.
Episode 2: Provider Payment Mechanisms
This episode takes a deep dive into Ghana’s experience managing the escalating costs of the National Health Insurance Scheme, while creating incentives for quality and responsiveness to patients, through provider payment reform. Sister Eugenia Amporfu provides important insights into navigating provider resistance to payment reforms and the importance of political economy and stakeholder buy-in. Finally, Ms. Agnes Gatome-Munyua and Dr. Cheryl Cashin discuss global lessons that listeners can draw from this experience.
Episode 3: Health Benefits Packages
The third episode features Dr. Kenneth Munge, who shares the process Kenya undertook to develop a health benefits package—defining what services would be included and excluded for the push towards UHC. The episode details the process of developing the package, including the stakeholder engagement required and both the strengths and areas for improvement for the process undertaken. At the conclusion of the episode, Dr. Kamaliah Noh and Dr. Cheryl Cashin discuss how Kenya’s experience relates to some of the common challenges countries frequently face when developing a benefit package and the importance of discussing how a benefits will be purchased and paid for from the beginning of the package design process.
Episode 4: Costing
Finally, the miniseries concludes with an episode on costing of health services. Experiences from Lebanon, Egypt and the Philippines provide insights into how costing can be carried out in a variety of different contexts. Insights from Dr. Rawan Hammoud and Dr. Ola Kdouh of Lebanon and Dr. Ahmed Khalifa of Egypt discuss some of the common challenges countries face when conducting costing exercises and the creative solutions these countries developed to solve such challenges. Dr. Ish Paragas of the Philippines then demonstrates the value that institutionalizing costing processes can have. Like the other technical episodes, this one concludes with insights from technical facilitators Dr. Tsolmon Tsilaajav and Dr. Cheryl Cashin.
As the PPM Technical Initiative enters a new phase of joint learning, the group is excited to continue developing this unique approach to accessible joint learning. Keep your eye out for more episodes—including interviews, talk shows and more—and be sure to listen to the first four episodes of the Provider Payment Mechanisms Podcast Miniseries ↗.
About the author: Allyson English is a Senior Program Associate at Results for Development ↗, which facilitates the JLN’s Provider Payment Mechanisms technical initiative.