BACKGROUND: PhilHealth, a government owned and controlled corporation which runs the country's social health insurance program, has given conflicting impressions of its financial position in various public forums. This study aims to describe the financial position of PhilHealth up to 2010 based on COA audit reports.

METHODS: Financial statements from Commision on Audit (COA) Annual Audit Reports on PhilHealth from the years 1999-2010 were reviewed to describe PhilHealth's financial position.

RESULTS: Up to 2010, based on COA audited reports, PhilHealth was financially solvent. Its net financial worth has steadily increased to P106.9B in 2010. PhilHealth's sources of revenues were mainly from premiums (82.7%) and interest income (17.0%). From 2007-2010, 88.5% of PhilHealth's premiums came from paying members. Premiums of the informal sector made up only 4.7% of toal premiums. Expenses were made up of benefit payments and administrative expenditures. PhilHealth exceeded its allowed administrative expenses for the years 2004, 2008 and 2009. PhilHealth's stated reserve fund has steadily increased and had rearched P90.7B in 2010. Several questions, outside of the scope of an analysis of the COA audit reports and involving reimbursements and adminstrative expenses need further investigation.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: At its level of purchasing up to 2010, PhilHealth was indeed sustainable. But as one of the three pillars of Kalusugan Pangkalahatan (KP), PhilHealth has to dramatically increase its share in the country's Total Health Expenditure. PhilHealth's financial position has to be continuously monitored as KP is being implemented.

Health Expenditures ; Financial Statements ; Informal Sector ; Insurance, Health ; Social Security ; Income ; Solvents

PURPOSE: This study was performed to analyze financial ratios and nursing productivity and to interpret comparisons of financial standard ratios. METHODS: The financial statements of 21 tertiary general hospitals were collected from the webpage of the National Tax Service in Korea. General characteristics of the hospitals were acquired from their webpages. RESULTS: The results obtained were compared with the financial standard ratios of Korean hospitals. The majority of hospitals showed poor liquidity, performance, turnover, and growth. Nursing productivity was measured by calculating annual value added per nurse (￦ 39,746,938) and annual gross revenues per nurses (￦ 65,803,550). CONCLUSION: Interestingly, although the financial ratios were generally poor, nursing productivities were very good. Nurse managers can suggest increasing nursing staff levels based on high nursing productivity despite poor financial conditions.
Efficiency ; Financial Statements ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Korea ; Nurse Administrators ; Nursing Staff ; Nursing ; Taxes

OBJECTIVES: The health transformation program was a recent reform in the health system of Iran that was implemented in early 2014. Some of the program's important goals were to improve the equity of payments and to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) payments and catastrophic health expenditures (CHE). In this study, these goals were evaluated using a before-and-after analysis.METHODS: Data on household income and expenditures in Guilan Province were gathered for the years 2013 and 2015. OOP payments for outpatient, inpatient, and drug services were calculated, and the results were compared using the propensity score matching technique after adjusting for confounding variables. Concentration indices and curves were added to quantify changes in inequity before and after the reform. The incidence of catastrophic expenditures was then calculated.RESULTS: Overall and outpatient service OOP payments increased by approximately 10 dollars, while for other types of services, no significant changes were found. Inequity and utilization of services did not change after the reform. However, a significant reduction was observed in CHE incidence (5.75 to 3.82%).CONCLUSIONS: The reform was successful in decreasing the incidence of CHE, but not in reducing the monetary amount of OOP payments or affecting the frequency of health service utilization.
Catastrophic Illness ; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Family Characteristics ; Financial Statements ; Health Care Reform ; Health Equity ; Health Expenditures ; Health Services ; Humans ; Incidence ; Inpatients ; Iran ; Outpatients ; Propensity Score

OBJECTIVES: The health transformation program was a recent reform in the health system of Iran that was implemented in early 2014. Some of the program's important goals were to improve the equity of payments and to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) payments and catastrophic health expenditures (CHE). In this study, these goals were evaluated using a before-and-after analysis. METHODS: Data on household income and expenditures in Guilan Province were gathered for the years 2013 and 2015. OOP payments for outpatient, inpatient, and drug services were calculated, and the results were compared using the propensity score matching technique after adjusting for confounding variables. Concentration indices and curves were added to quantify changes in inequity before and after the reform. The incidence of catastrophic expenditures was then calculated. RESULTS: Overall and outpatient service OOP payments increased by approximately 10 dollars, while for other types of services, no significant changes were found. Inequity and utilization of services did not change after the reform. However, a significant reduction was observed in CHE incidence (5.75 to 3.82%). CONCLUSIONS: The reform was successful in decreasing the incidence of CHE, but not in reducing the monetary amount of OOP payments or affecting the frequency of health service utilization.
Catastrophic Illness ; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Family Characteristics* ; Financial Statements ; Health Care Reform ; Health Equity ; Health Expenditures ; Health Services ; Humans ; Incidence ; Inpatients ; Iran* ; Outpatients ; Propensity Score