About the Learning Exchange – This activity is concluded

In recent years, the global public health community has sharpened the focus of its attention and resources on the objective of achieving universal health coverage (UHC). UHC policies often focus on mobilizing resources to increase population coverage with basic health services. However, as coverage expands in these countries issues of financial sustainability, efficiency, and quality of care quickly rise to the surface. Through developing robust provider payment systems, countries can take significant steps towards improving the quality of care, the prevention of fraud, and effective cost management.

Members of the Provider Payment Mechanisms technical initiative united around the common struggle to perform costing studies for provider payment in a data-constrained environment by creating the Core Working Group (CWG). Building on member experience, collaborative members developed Costing of Health Services for Provider Payment: A Practical Manual to fill the gap in practical guidance for collecting and using costing information for the purpose of informing provider payment policy and calculating provider payment rates.

The CWG is a unique, powerful collaboration of costing experts from JLN member countries and other countries that have struggled, or are currently struggling, with major health services costing exercises in settings with enormous data challenges. Members built the manual from real experiences, real challenges, and real spreadsheets. Working together virtually and in-person, CWG members are combining their varied experiences to guide policymakers and researchers in other countries who are embarking upon costing initiatives for provider payment reform. They are also learning from each other in the process and building the foundation to serve as a resource of costing expertise for other countries to draw on in the future.

• Costing of Health Services for Provider Payment: A Practical Manual
• Costing Manual Toolkit

Past Collaborative Work

Costing Train the Trainer

This workshop was designed to increase literacy among Joint Learning Network member countries around costing of healthcare services for provider payments. Building on the Costing Manual, the workshop was also designed to enable participants to return to their country contexts and spread the knowledge they have gained. By the end of the workshop, participants were able to design a costing study and were ready to train others in their home countries. The train the trainer workshop is a pioneering step toward adopting a scientific approach to costing studies across countries and spreading this methodology as far and wide as possible. Click here to access Train the Trainer course materials.