Funding of mental health services: Do available data support episodic payment?

Rowena Jacobs, Martin Chalkley, María José Aragón, Jan Böhnke, Mike Clark, Valerie Moran and Simon Gilbody
Additional contact information
Rowena Jacobs: Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, UK.
María José Aragón: Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, UK.
Jan Böhnke: HYMS and Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK
Mike Clark: PSSRU, London School of Economics, London, UK
Valerie Moran: Department of Health Services Research and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
Simon Gilbody: 2HYMS and Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK

No 137cherp, Working Papers from Centre for Health Economics, University of York

Abstract: The primary method of funding NHS mental health services in England has been block contracts between commissioners and providers, with negotiations based on historical expenditure. There has been an intention to change the funding method to make it similar to that used in acute hospitals (called the National Tariff Payment System or NTPS, formerly known as Payment by Results (PbR)) where fixed prices are paid for each completed treatment episode. Within the mental health context this funding approach is known as episodic payment. Patients are categorised into groups with similar levels of need, called clusters. The mental health clustering tool (MHCT) provides a guide for assignment of patients to clusters. Fixed prices could then be set for each cluster and providers would be paid for the services they deliver within each cluster based on these fixed prices, although the emphasis to date has been on local pricing. For this episodic payment system to work, the MHCT needs to assign patients to clusters, such that they are homogenous in terms of 1) patient need, and 2) resource use.

Keywords: Mental Health; Payment System; National Tariff Payment System (NTPS); episodic payment; Mental Health Clustering Tool (MHCT); Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS); Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS). (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 90 pages
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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http://www.york.ac.uk/media/che/documents/papers/r ... episodic_payment.pdf First version, 2016 (application/pdf)

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