 The changing nature of contracts in German health carePetra Riemer-Hommel Social Science & Medicine, 2002, vol. 55, issue 8, 1447-1455 Abstract: The flexibility inherent in the German health care system is fairly limited. The contracting environment itself is characterized by bilateral cartels negotiating the terms covering their respective members. Looking at some recently implemented reforms, namely structural contracts and experimental settings, the paper assesses the potential for sickness funds to take on a more active role. The paper also evaluates the implications for the contracting relationships between the statutory sickness funds and provider associations. Furthermore, the potential effect of selective contracting on the health care system is studied. A look at the reforms recently enacted in other countries illustrates the difficulties contractual reform has to cope with in an environment characterized by strong informational asymmetries. It is postulated that both private and public choices are needed for a successful reform effort. Keywords: Selective; contracts; Health; care; reform; Sickness; funds; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:55:y:2002:i:8:p:1447-1455 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.