Contracting arrangements in the health strategy context: A regional approach for Spain

Abstract

Background: Several different proposals have recently been made to reform the organisation, financing and management of the health care system in Spain. The aim is to obtain improved efficiency, without prejudicing the level of equity already achieved, by creating a more competitive framework. However, current health strategies seem not to be in accord with these proposals. This paper approaches the issue of matching these two main components of the health systems, health strategy and contracts, and emphasises the need to develop contracting arrangements within the general health policy framework. Design: Case studies, analysis of published and unpublished documents, and semi-structured interviews with key informants. Results and discussion: A review of regional health strategies and regional contracts developed in the 1990s is presented, followed by an analysis of the degree of coherence between them. Then we discuss whether the programme contract can be an instrument guided by the health plan, commenting on its potential and limitations. Conclusion: The relationship between health strategy and health care management is practically non-existent in Spain. The need to insert the contract cycle within the broader framework of the planning cycle has led to proposals to adapt contracts and health plans to guarantee their coherence. This will require changes in the structure of both of these instruments and, probably, deeper structural modifications of the context within which both have been developed. To this aim, we make some recommendations for policy making.