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Negotiating the Network: The Contracting Experiences of Community Mental Health Agencies in New Zealand
Author(s) -
Newberry Susan,
Barnett Pauline
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0408.00125
Subject(s) - negotiation , mental health , business , hierarchy , public relations , public administration , economics , political science , medicine , psychiatry , market economy , law
Structural options for reforming New Zealand'spublicly funded health services included a hierarchy, a market model, or hybrid arrangements such as quasi‐markets and networks. A survey of 28 community mental health agencies, contracting with the four regional health authorities, found that three structures emerged: a quasi‐market, a coercive network and a beneficent network. Further reforms to the publicly funded health services created a single purchaser and preferred a network structure. Performance assessment of these reformed health services requires assessment of the whole network and not just individual components. The accounting profession, although closely involved in the public sector reforms, appears to have overlooked this task.