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The French prescription for health care reform
Author(s) -
Segouin Christophe,
Thayer Christine
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1751(199910/12)14:4<313::aid-hpm539>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - health care , government (linguistics) , accreditation , business , agency (philosophy) , medical prescription , health care reform , quality (philosophy) , health policy , economic growth , nursing , medicine , economics , linguistics , philosophy , epistemology
In 1996, the French government introduced a wide‐ranging health care reform which aimed to resolve the problems of rising health expenditure and a levelling off in health sector income. Changes in the regulation of the health care system sought to strengthen quality while improving professional practice. At the same time the changes were intended to encourage greater synergy both between professionals and between the different parts of the system, thus promoting greater cost‐effectiveness. The tools designed to achieve these results included: the creation of new regional hospital agencies, the introduction of cash‐limited budgets at national and regional level, the launching of a contracting procedure between health authorities and hospitals and the setting up of a new health care accreditation agency. With some signs of improvement in the overall health insurance budgetary situation, the Jospin government seems to be supporting the broad lines of the reform introduced by its predecessor. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.