Ingrid Vargas

TL;DR: This article aims to improve the knowledge on patients' perceptions of relational (RC), informational (IC) and management continuity (MC) across care levels by identifying elements that enhance or distract continuity of care across boundaries.

TL;DR: Differences can be detected in the use of services: in Colombia greater geographical and economic barriers and the need for authorization from insurers are more relevant, whereas in Brazil, it is the limited availability of health centres, doctors and drugs that leads to longer waiting times.

TL;DR: In both countries, inequity in the use of outpatient secondary care is more pronounced than in the other care levels, and the design of the health systems appears to determine access to the health services: two insurance schemes with different benefits packages and a segmented system in Brazil, with a significant private component.

TL;DR: The results show how in the Colombian healthcare system structural and organizational barriers to care access are widened by both the insurers' use of mechanisms that limit the utilization and the public healthcare providers' change of behavior in a competition environment, providing evidence to question the promotion of the managed competition model in low and middle-income countries.

TL;DR: The results reveal poor clinical information transfer between healthcare levels in all networks analysed, with added deficiencies in Brazil in the coordination of access and clinical management.