Use of risk adjustment in setting budgets and measuring performance in primary care Ⅰ: how it works

摘要

Healthcare systems in countries throughout the developed world are faced with the problem of limiting the growth in spending on health services while ensuring that their populations have access to appropriate care. The United Kingdom is no different in this respect, and the past 20 years have seen the introduction of numerous initiatives aimed at improving the efficiency of the NHS. Approaches adopted by the NHS to help improve efficiency include the introduction of capitation based budgets and increased monitoring of providers' performance. In the United States similar pressures to improve the efficiency of the healthcare system have led to the wide scale adoption of fixed budgets and monitoring of healthcare providers.