Overcoming fragmentation in health care: chronic care in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands

Ellen Nolte, Cécile Knai, Maria Hofmarcher, Annalijn Conklin, Antje Erler, Arianne Elissen, Maria Flamm, Brigit Fullerton, Andreas Sönnichsen and Hubertus J. M. Vrijhoef

Health Economics, Policy and Law, 2012, vol. 7, issue 1, 125-146

Abstract: The growing recognition of care fragmentation is causing many countries to explore new approaches to healthcare delivery that can bridge the boundaries between professions, providers and institutions and so better support the rising number of people with chronic health problems. This paper examines the role of the regulatory, funding and organisational context for the development and implementation of approaches to chronic care, using examples from Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. We find that the three countries have implemented a range of policies and approaches to achieve better coordination within and across the primary and secondary care interface and so better meet the needs of patients with chronic conditions. This has involved changes to the regulatory framework to support more coordinated approaches to care (Austria, Germany), coupled with financial incentives (Austria, Germany) or changes in payment systems (the Netherlands). What is common to the three countries is the comparative ‘novelty’ of policies and approaches aimed at fostering coordinated care; however, the evidence of their impact remains unclear.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:hecopl:v:7:y:2012:i:01:p:125-146_00

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Health Economics, Policy and Law from Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().