What is the Southeast Asia strategic health purchasing registry?
The Southeast Asia strategic health purchasing registry is an overview of the current landscape of health purchasing in the region. Researched through literature reviews and expert stakeholder interviews, the registry is a first step to understanding the state of strategic purchasing in Southeast Asia and identifying common challenges and opportunities for governments.
What is strategic purchasing?
Strategic purchasing refers to the efficient allocation of health resources to achieve health system goals. This could include healthcare goods (e.g. medicines and vaccines, medical equipment and consumables); healthcare services (e.g. surgeries and consultations); or healthcare support services (e.g. facilities management, hospital laundry, ambulances).
Strategic purchasing has the potential to free up fiscal space, and thus contribute to improved health outcomes and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Purchasing has been identified by the WHO as a core pillar of health financing. More money alone cannot achieve UHC; the way funds are allocated is equally important.
There are two types of purchasing: passive and strategic. In passive purchasing, a health service provider is offered a pre-determined budget or simply reimbursed for the bills they produce. This often translates to a poorly-defined package of services and low system efficiency.
In strategic purchasing, a provider aims to achieve efficient and effective purchasing outcomes within a set budget. Strategic purchasing involves constantly searching for the most efficient decisions on resource allocation, transforming health budgets into better population health coverage and producing health system efficiency gains.
Strategic purchasing involves three core questions:
WHAT TO PURCHASE? — This involves specifying the services, goods, interventions and medicines to be purchased.
FROM WHOM TO PURCHASE? — This involves selecting the health service providers and goods suppliers from whom services will be purchased.
HOW TO PURCHASE? — This involves designing appropriate provider payment mechanisms; determining contractual obligations for purchasers and health service providers; setting incentives to improve provider performance.
What countries does the registry cover?
The 2023 registry covers all then ASEAN countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Whom is the registry for?
The registry is for anyone interested in health financing, UHC, health systems and healthcare purchasing in Southeast Asia.
Governments can use the registry to overview the status of their country’s healthcare purchasing and compare to their ASEAN peers.
Health purchasers and service providers can understand the different players that are active in their country and in the region as a whole.
Civil society can use the registry to track health financing reforms, health insurance schemes and strategic purchasing initiatives in the region.
Who are our funders?
The registry was developed thanks to funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of SEARCH (the Southeast Asia Regional Collaborative for Health), a regional learning network aiming to improve knowledge, understanding and take-up of UHC in ASEAN.
