The Role of Hospital Funding in Albania: A Situational Analysis

Abstract

This abstract is to provide a concise description of the role of hospital funding in Albania. For many years, hospitals in Albania been funded on an historical and line-by-line basis. From year to year, the budgets has based on the previous year’s funding with adjustments based on inflation and political factors. The Health Insurance Fund of Albania is preparing to take over funding decisions with respect to hospitals in January 2017, in the event they are requested to do so. This abstract proposes a fives year program in which Health Insurance Fund of Albania could begin immediately with changes to hospital funding which would generate greater equity among hospitals in terms of funding based on population served. The additional data collected will also enable the Health Insurance Fund of Albania to move toward implementation of a case mix model, which be used for funding but is recommended to be used only as a method to improve the allocation process by putting cost values to cases treated including resource intensity weights reflecting the cost of services. In brief, the current situation in Albania includes the following problems as isufficiency in health financing; the national health insurance scheme is still not consolidated; planning and budgeting are not coordinated; inefficient management of financial resources and lack of transparency and accountability. These reform proposals are ambitious and require detailed planning for their implementation. Significant efforts will be required from key players in the health sector.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n3s1p525