Financing home care in Europe

• Despite the assumption that care delivered at home is more cost-effective than care provided in institutions, such as nursing homes, the pressure on expenditures for home care will remain. Financial incentives are widely used to get better value for money. Incentives can be applied to authorities responsible for home care, or to agencies that provide services or to clients who receive care. Details of the financing system of home care services very much determine the possibilities for financial incentives. At present, there is a need for comparative information on financing mechanisms for home care. This presentation is based on the results of the EC-financed EURHOMAP project. Indicators have been developed in this project to map the home care systems in Europe, including details of financing. In 2009 and early 2010, EURHOMAP partners have collected data on these indicators in 31 countries in collaboration with experts in these countries. Results were described in uniformly structured country reports and fed back to national experts for validation. Prevailing models of financing for home care will be presented as well as information of the extent to which home care across Europe is pressured by financial restraints. Especially in Eastern European countries, where home care is not well developed yet, funding is a major problem. Co-payments are applicable in most countries to reduce expenditures and to prevent over-utilisation of services. Usually, financing mechanisms for social community based services differ from the mechanisms in place for home health care services. Consequently, modes of reimbursement for providers of different sorts of home care services and the financial implications for clients differ. Co-payments are more prevalent with social services than with health care. Another financial allocation mechanism is means testing, which is frequently used with publicly financed home care services. There is a large diversity in the type of financing mechanism, both between and within countries in Europe. Budgetary restraints are one of the main problems with regard to home care in almost all countries. Usually, access to home care services is restricted in some way by financial restrictions.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Nationalekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economics (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Omvårdnad

Nursing

Economics

Nationalekonomi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)