Purchasing for Health: Multidisciplinary Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Health Purchasing (Health Services Management Series)

Health purchasing has grown in prominence as a result of health reform in Europe and the USA to become one of the world's biggest industries. People's health increasingly depends on the skills and abilities of health purchasing managers, yet little is known about the subject. Ordinary people are becoming aware of the sums spent in their name by 'faceless bureaucrats', and cannot see what value health purchasers add. Although health purchasing is more than paying bills and contracting services, there is uncertainty about the purpose and future role of purchasing organizations in different health systems.

This first book on the subject views health purchasing - both public and private - as a service industry. It argues that, to survive, purchasers have to be more than agents of cost control and must win public support by shaping technological and service changes to uphold our rights and interests. Purchasers need to use service management methods and organization to improve their services to ordinary people.

This book contributes to the theory and practice of the new management discipline of health purchasing, and to an understanding of health purchasing organizations, both public and private. It examines the purpose and methods of health purchasing as a service industry in a rapidly changing and unique type of market. Although concentrating on public health purchasing in the British National Health Service, the book does so in a way which allows comparisons to be made with purchasing in other countries. It presents practical approaches, concepts, and models which have helped purchasing managers and governing board members to tackle key issues. It draws on experience from a variety of sources including a development programme for seven integrated NHS purchasing agencies and the author's research into health reforms in Europe and the USA. Taking a multidisciplinary perspective, the book also draws on knowledge from public health, health policy, health economics, service management and organization, and organization development.