Compare: Service delivery system

Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage

The Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage systematically documents the reforms of its member countries and other countries that have expanded health coverage through demand-side financing. The case studies contained in these pages are brief, comparative and modular in nature, describing the key highlights and technical features of each program.


Compare various dimensions of country reform efforts using our interactive tool.


Program Service delivery system Public providers Non-state providers Service delivery system
Indonesia: Jamkesmas
  • Both Public & Non-state
926 220

Jamkesmas beneficiaries are able to seek care at both public and private outlets, though covered ambulatory services are solely public. The scheme contracts with 926 hospitals for service provision, including 220 private hospitals for certain procedures. Health services across each public scheme in Indonesia are delivered by a mix of providers, with most schemes relying heavily on the public sector for delivery of care.

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Jamkesmas beneficiaries are able to seek care at both public and private outlets, though covered ambulatory services are solely public. The scheme contracts with 926 hospitals for service provision, including 220 private hospitals for certain procedures. Health services across each public scheme in Indonesia are delivered by a mix of providers, with most schemes relying heavily on the public sector for delivery of care.

Kyrgyz Republic: Mandatory Health Insurance Fund (MHIF)
  • Both Public & Non-state

The reforms restructured the health delivery system to form a completely new PHC sector and introduced retraining mechanisms for physicians in order to establish a cadre of autonomous primary care providers across the country. From 2000 to 2003 alone, the share of primary care expenditures in total health spending increased from 17% to 31%.

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The reforms restructured the health delivery system to form a completely new PHC sector and introduced retraining mechanisms for physicians in order to establish a cadre of autonomous primary care providers across the country. From 2000 to 2003 alone, the share of primary care expenditures in total health spending increased from 17% to 31%.

Enrollees are free to choose a family group practice for their primary care and they can switch once per year during the annual registration period. In large urban settings, practices that offer higher quality services will attract a larger number of patients, leading to higher capitation payments for the practice. Rural areas, however, have too few providers in order to create this type of quality incentive.

After the primary care reforms created the undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing education curricula, the number of primary care physicians rose significantly from 5.8 per 1,000 population in 2001 to 8.2 per 1,000 population in 2005. Furthermore, by the end of 2004, 75 percent of primary care physicians and nurses had been retrained as family physicians and family medicine nurses.

Kyrgyzstan has three types of primary care providers. First, the core of the old rural health system, Feldsher-Obstetric Ambulatory Points (FAPs) are facilities in the most remote reaches of the country that offer basic services such as neonatal care, immunizations, and health education. As of 2006 there were 875 FAPs across Kyrgyzstan, each serving between 500 and 2,000 people. Second, Family Group Practices (FGPs) are the major providers of primary care in Kyrgyzstan. FGPs are normally made up of three to five doctors. They can be freestanding and autonomous entities or units within large hospital polyclinics. Finally, Family Medicine Centers (FMCs) are large outpatient facilities staffed by varying numbers of specialists, often 10 to 20 health care professionals in addition to their affiliated FGPs. Their service offerings range from primary care to specialized care, including instrumental diagnostics. In 2006, approximately 93% of FAPs and 96% of FGPs were part of Family Medicine Centers.

Secondary care is provided by hospitals at the oblast level (generally one oblast merged hospital in each oblast), and by territorial hospitals in rayons and cities (51 hospitals nationally). The main difference between these two types of hospitals lies in the variety and complexity of conditions that they can handle. Tertiary care that provides highly specialized services is conducted in eight central-level hospitals. In terms of legal organization, most health care organizations tend to be public. The exceptions are optic, dental, urologic, and gynecological services, which tend to be private facilities and are mostly concentrated in the capital city of Bishkek.

Rwanda: Mutuelles de Sante
  • Both Public & Non-state
165 411

Mutuelle members are able to access health care through all public and private non-profit health centers in Rwanda, which excludes only 10% of the country’s health care facilities that are private and for-profit. A recent law titled the Patient Roaming System was passed allowing any Mutuelle member to seek health care at any health center throughout the country. However, this has not been realized in practice as the capacity to transfer bills and funds is still limited, despite ambitions for more e-health solutions.

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Mutuelle members are able to access health care through all public and private non-profit health centers in Rwanda, which excludes only 10% of the country’s health care facilities that are private and for-profit. A recent law titled the Patient Roaming System was passed allowing any Mutuelle member to seek health care at any health center throughout the country. However, this has not been realized in practice as the capacity to transfer bills and funds is still limited, despite ambitions for more e-health solutions.

Rwanda has about 411 private and public health centers in total, which deliver primary and secondary care at the sector and district level. Facilities are run by for-profit entities, traditional healers, non-governmental agencies, and governmentally-assisted health organizations. Public Governmentally Assisted Health Facilities (GAHFs) are run by NGOs, religious groups, and other third parties and are partially funded by the central government. These account for approximately 40% of all primary and secondary care facilities.

Primary care includes out-patient services, in-patient services, and preventive services such as immunizations, while secondary care is provided by district hospitals, which are responsible for more specialized procedures such as surgery, management of complicated cases such as severe malaria, organization of health services in health centers, administrative functioning and logistics—including the management of resources and supply of drugs— as well as supervision of community health workers. In addition, six mental health operational poles in district hospitals have been established and 30 district hospitals have integrated mental healthcare into the system. Each district health center serves approximately 200,000 people, with an average of one bed per every 1,000 people. However, these figures mask substantial variation between districts and provinces, which range from 70,000 to 480,000 people served per district. In 2006 Rwanda purchased 51 ambulances and 270 motorcycles for the district level health centers.

Tertiary care is delivered at the national level at one of the few specialized, national medical institutions. There are only 4 tertiary care hospitals in Rwanda, 3 public and 1 private. While national hospitals should primarily serve as referral hospitals, in reality there is substantial overlap due to unclear delineation of responsibilities.

Currently, individuals are considered to have access to medical centers if services can be reached within one and half hours by foot; approximately 85% of the population falls into this category. For the 15% of individuals living in rural areas, telemedicine is currently being used to reach geographically isolated regions.

Pharmacies make generic medications available through the independent purchasing supply house called the Central Purchasing of Essential Drugs, Medical Consumables and Equipment in Rwanda (Centrale d’Achat des Medicaments Essentiels au Rwnda or CAMERWA), a non-profit organization that sells medications to district pharmacies and health facilities as a means of financing the activities of CAMERWA. The government fully finances vaccines and immunizations with the Expanded Programme on Immunizations.

The table below summarizes the growth in the number of health facilities in Rwanda since the 1980s.

Year1982199020002007
Hospitals27292938
Health centers, dispensaries, and health posts208302348411
Korea, Rep.: National Health Insurance Program
  • Both Public & Non-state

Health care delivery relies heavily on the private sector. Only about 10% of hospitals are public, while 90% of total health care resources are provided for-profit by the private sectorKorean patients with health insurance are able to go to any doctor or medical institution that they choose without being denied, except specialized general hospitals. If a patient wants to go to a secondary or tertiary care hospital, they must present a referral slip issued by the original medical practitioner. The exceptions to this include: childbirth, emergency medical care, dental care, rehabilitation, family medicine, and hemophiliac disease. Higher co-payments are requested for those patients without a referral letter.

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Health care delivery relies heavily on the private sector. Only about 10% of hospitals are public, while 90% of total health care resources are provided for-profit by the private sectorKorean patients with health insurance are able to go to any doctor or medical institution that they choose without being denied, except specialized general hospitals. If a patient wants to go to a secondary or tertiary care hospital, they must present a referral slip issued by the original medical practitioner. The exceptions to this include: childbirth, emergency medical care, dental care, rehabilitation, family medicine, and hemophiliac disease. Higher co-payments are requested for those patients without a referral letter.

The Medical Law stipulates that only authorized and licensed healthcare professionals can provide health services. The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MoHW) licenses only doctors, dentists, nurses, oriental medical doctors, and midwives, while nurse’s aides, acupuncturists, and massage therapists are licensed as quasi-medical professionals. As of 2007, there were 91,400 physicians, 23,114 dentists, 16,663 oriental medical doctors, 57,176 pharmacists, 8,587 midwives, and 235,687 nurses. However, wide disparities exist between urban and rural areas; about 90% of physicians are concentrated in urban areas.

Health care delivery relies heavily on the private sector. Only about 10% of hospitals are public, while 90% of total health care resources are provided (de facto for-profit) by the private sector. The 10% of the public service system are composed of community public health centers known as Bogeunso, the National Medical Center, and provincial hospitals. There has been less of a push from the public sector to formulate policy alternatives to the private sector–dominated delivery system.

Philippines: PhilHealth
  • Both Public & Non-state

The service delivery system includes both public and private centers; on average, the network is comprised of 61% private and 39% public providers.

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The service delivery system includes both public and private centers; on average, the network is comprised of 61% private and 39% public providers. In order to achieve accreditation, all in-network hospitals and day-surgery centers must be licensed by the Department of Health.

The network includes hospitals, day surgery centers, maternity care clinics, midwife-operated clinics, freestanding dialysis centers, physician clinics, dentists doing procedures in hospitals and day surgeries, government-run health centers for primary care benefits, TB DOTS and malaria, and private TB-DOTS clinics.

Non-hospitals and day-surgery centers are not required to be licensed by the DOH; however, all facilities are evaluated by an accreditation team from PhilHealth.

India: RSBY
  • Both Public & Non-state
551 1516

As of October 2009, the RSBY delivery network included 2,067 hospitals, 1,516 private and 551 public. Providers are empanelled by a state-selected insurance company based on specific structural, procedural and quality criteria, including the installation of SmartCard readers and all associated technology. A health care provider empanelled by any of the insurers in RSBY gets automatically empanelled by all the other insurers.

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As of October 2009, the RSBY delivery network included 2,067 hospitals, 1,516 private and 551 public. Providers are empanelled by a state-selected insurance company based on specific structural, procedural and quality criteria, including the installation of SmartCard readers and all associated technology. A health care provider empanelled by any of the insurers in RSBY gets automatically empanelled by all the other insurers.

After an insurance company is selected by the state, the insurance company is tasked with empaneling/certifying both public and private care providers in the program. The process is based on prescribed criteria (e.g., the service providers should possess specified basic facilities, like: have at least 10 inpatient medical beds; have specified medical and surgical facilities and diagnostic facilities, etc.). In addition, hospitals must agree to need to install necessary hardware and software to be able to process beneficiaries’ SmartCard transactions. They must also set up a dedicated RSBY desk with trained staff.

The insurer must empanel enough hospitals in each district so that beneficiaries do not need to travel great distances to get to health care services. For empanelment of public hospitals, the insurer needs to coordinate with the respective health department of the state.

Once a hospital is empanelled, a nationally-unique hospital ID number is generated so that transactions can be tracked at each hospital. Each empanelled hospital is connected with the district server of the insurance company and thus able to transfer data related to hospitalization on a daily basis.