Description
INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVES
Malaria represents a major risk in Cameroon, especially for children and pregnant women with 11’200 deaths in 2018, 51% of which are children under five. There has been a “free health care” policy in place for several years for children under five, but it shows weaknesses and, overall, out-of-pocket payments are still relatively high, representing 68% of current health expenditure in 2020.
The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and the BACKUP Health Programme team in Cameroon conceptualised a project aiming to improve access to malaria healthcare and increase transparency of healthcare funding through close monitoring.
Our intended poster will present the results of the costing study and the innovative third party payer mechanism developed by Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) together with NMCP and the National Coordination Desk for Universal Health Coverage (CTN-CSU) of the Ministry of public Health in Cameroon.
METHODOLOGY
Swiss TPH together with Oeconomia Expertise, conducted a study to assess the actual and standardized costs of malaria services, and whether the free health care policy is effective. A nationally representative sample was selected, targeting public and faith-based health facilities. Data collection took place in May 2022 in twenty health facilities located in eighteen health districts and four regions (Centre, North, East and West).
Following this, several workshops were organised with key national stakeholders to define standard benefit packages and strategic purchasing mechanisms for selected health care services together with their cost estimates. This work has been done within the framework of the new Universal Health Coverage (UHC) program, which started operationally in November 2023.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The results of the costing study show that the free healthcare policy is not fully implemented, in all regions, or in all facility types and there is a great diversity in terms of costs and pricing for malaria services. For example, expenses for first-line treatment of severe malaria with injectable Artesunate (IV or IM) are between 1,600 and 31,000 FCFA for patients under five years of age, and between 5,250 and 62,905 FCFA for pregnant women.
When health facilities receive free medicines and consumables in view of providing free care for selected services (including consultations further examinations), they do not necessarily cover their costs and therefore cannot deliver free care as expected. The intended third-party payment mechanism aims to provide adequate resources to remove user fees whilst contributing to health facilities’ running costs.
The mechanism intends to promote trust (of the population and providers through strategic communication), transparency (through openIMIS, an open-source health insurance management information system) and reduced financial burden (through claim reimbursement).
CONCLUSION
The Government has shown interest in integrating the mechanism in the UHC programme and work has started to personalise openIMIS and to train users with the CTN-CSU and NMCP with financial support of the Global Fund, aiming to start implementing a pilot in 2024.
| Contact Geneva Health Forum | I just want to receive information about the GHF 2024 conference / Je souhaite simplement recevoir des informations sur la conférence GHF 2024 |
|---|
