In 2003 a new type of provider organisation, the Foundation Trust (FT), was introduced in England, and the best performing NHS hospitals were able to apply for 'Foundation status'. FTs enjoy greater financial flexibility and are subject to less central monitoring and control. The phased...

This paper studies the relationship between medical compliance and health outcomes - hospitalization and mortality rates - using a large panel of patients residing in a local health authority in Italy. These data allow us to follow individual patients through all their accesses to public health...

We examine access to general practitioners and specialists who work in the public and private sectors in Italy using a seemingly unrelated system of probits. We use a latent class formulation that provides a rich and flexible functional form and can accommodate non-normality of response...

Background: IQWiG commissioned an international panel of experts to develop methods for the assessment of the relation of benefits to costs in the German statutory health-care system. <P>Proposed methods: The panel recommended that IQWiG inform German decision makers of the net costs and value of...</p>