Showing papers by "John M. Luiz published in 2012"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the main factors considered by telecommunications firms when making a decision to undertake Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which encompasses the reasons for investing, the methods of entry into the identified market and the factors influencing their decision.
22 citations
TL;DR: GPs appear to have an affordable and pro-active response to NHI capitation costing and fee setting, and government could affordably use GPs to develop the primary health care part of NHI to cover the entire South African uninsured population.
Abstract: Considerable attention has been given to developing a national health insurance (NHI) system in South Africa (SA), with a strong emphasis on including private general practitioners (GPs) to deliver primary healthcare (PHC). This system switch is based on a shift from a fee-for-service payment system (where the patient pays for each service, starting with the consultation) to capitation payment. 1 1 Membership would be compulsory for all South Africans and legal permanent residents, and existing medical schemes would continue alongside the NHI. The NHI has been contentious, with wildly fluctuating estimates of its costs. The government public health service spend in 2011/2012 was R121 billion for 85% of the population. The government model in the NHI indicates that resource requirements will increase from R128 billion in 2012 to R255 billion in 2025. The media reflexively expect that the R85 billion private medical schemes spent in 2010 on 15% of the population will mean an NHI cost of R567 billion. GP care would comprise R42 billion (assuming the current 7.4% GP share of private medical scheme spend) for the 85% of the population. There are other estimates of R187 billion for ambulatory care or R176 billion for basic prescribed care. 3 Background. The introduction of national health insurance (NHI) is an important debate in South Africa, with affordability and institutional capacity being the key issues. NHI costing has been dominated by estimates of exorbitant cost. However, capitation is not only a different payment system but also a different service delivery model, and as a result there are opportunities for risk management and efficiencies. Objective. This study explores how private general practitioners (GPs) may choose to embrace these service delivery concepts and deal with the cost implications to meet NHI requirements. Methods. Data were collected from 598 solo private GPs through a self-administered online questionnaire survey across South
20 citations