A Canadian think tank says a funding model implemented in Quebec and Australia could improve Alberta health care.Activity-based funding for hospitals would incentivize them to offer as many services as efficiently as possible. A Montreal Economic Institute study said using this approach in Alberta could shorten wait times and improve productivity. “Our current hospital funding model incentivizes treating the fewest patients possible, as each new patient represents an additional cost,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, senior public policy analyst and Alberta project lead at the MEI.“It's imperative that we transition to activity-based funding immediately in order to start bringing wait times down, as so many other jurisdictions have done.”Wait times from referral by a general practitioner to treatment by a specialist in Alberta are among the highest in Canada: 33.3 weeks, compared to 29.4 weeks in Quebec and 20.3 weeks in Ontario.Currently, Alberta’s hospitals are financed under a system called “global budgeting.” This involves allocating a pre-set amount of funding to pay for a specific number of services based on previous years’ budgets.Quebec is transitioning to a model known as “activity-based funding.” Under this system, hospitals receive a fixed payment for each treatment delivered. In Quebec, after adopting activity-based funding, the cost of an MRI fell by 4% and the number of MRIs performed increased by 22%. In the radiology and oncology sector, productivity increased by 26% while procedure costs decreased by 7%.Similarly, in the colonoscopy and digestive endoscopy sector, productivity increased by 14% and the case backlog shrank by 31%. .Australia experienced a 16% drop in wait times within the first year after activity-based funding was implemented, according to the study. “We can’t keep doing the same thing while expecting different results,” said Wittevrongel.“If we want a truly patient-centric healthcare system, let’s transition to something that we know works: activity-based funding.”The MEI study is available here.
A Canadian think tank says a funding model implemented in Quebec and Australia could improve Alberta health care.Activity-based funding for hospitals would incentivize them to offer as many services as efficiently as possible. A Montreal Economic Institute study said using this approach in Alberta could shorten wait times and improve productivity. “Our current hospital funding model incentivizes treating the fewest patients possible, as each new patient represents an additional cost,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, senior public policy analyst and Alberta project lead at the MEI.“It's imperative that we transition to activity-based funding immediately in order to start bringing wait times down, as so many other jurisdictions have done.”Wait times from referral by a general practitioner to treatment by a specialist in Alberta are among the highest in Canada: 33.3 weeks, compared to 29.4 weeks in Quebec and 20.3 weeks in Ontario.Currently, Alberta’s hospitals are financed under a system called “global budgeting.” This involves allocating a pre-set amount of funding to pay for a specific number of services based on previous years’ budgets.Quebec is transitioning to a model known as “activity-based funding.” Under this system, hospitals receive a fixed payment for each treatment delivered. In Quebec, after adopting activity-based funding, the cost of an MRI fell by 4% and the number of MRIs performed increased by 22%. In the radiology and oncology sector, productivity increased by 26% while procedure costs decreased by 7%.Similarly, in the colonoscopy and digestive endoscopy sector, productivity increased by 14% and the case backlog shrank by 31%. .Australia experienced a 16% drop in wait times within the first year after activity-based funding was implemented, according to the study. “We can’t keep doing the same thing while expecting different results,” said Wittevrongel.“If we want a truly patient-centric healthcare system, let’s transition to something that we know works: activity-based funding.”The MEI study is available here.
