Abstract
BackgroundLegislative provisions in Thailand's National Health Security Act 2002 mandate annual public hearings for providers, beneficiaries and other stakeholders in order to improve the performance of the Universal Health Coverage Scheme (UCS).ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the annual public hearing process, evaluate its effectiveness and propose recommendations for improvement.MethodIn‐depth interviews were conducted with 29 key informants from various stakeholder groups involved in annual public hearings.ResultsThe evaluation showed that the public hearings fully met the criteria of influence over policy decision and partially met the criteria of appropriate participation approach and social learning. However, there are rooms for improvement on public hearing's inclusiveness and representativeness of participants, adequacy of information and transparency.ConclusionsThree recommendations were proposed a) informing stakeholders in advance of the agenda and hearing process to enable their active participation; b) identifying experienced facilitators to navigate the discussions across stakeholders with different or conflicting interests, in order to reach consensus and prioritize recommendations; and c) communicating policy and management responses as a result of public hearings to all stakeholders in a timely manner.
Highlights
Thailand achieved Universal Health Coverage (UHC) following the adoption of the National Health Security Act (NHSA) in November 2002, which led to the implementation of the Universal HealthCoverage Scheme (UCS), the largest public insurance scheme covering approximately 75% of Thailand's 68 million population.[1,2,3,4,5] The NHSA mandates the National Health Security Office (NHSO) to implement the UCS through its head quarter and 13 regional offices.[6]
The guiding principles of the public hearings and appointment of the ad-hoc committee for proposing annual public hearing agendas are endorsed by the National Health Security Board (NHSB) (NHSO3)
This study evaluated the annual public hearings for the improvement of UCS performance by applying a six criteria evaluation framework
Summary
Coverage Scheme (UCS), the largest public insurance scheme covering approximately 75% of Thailand's 68 million population.[1,2,3,4,5] The NHSA mandates the National Health Security Office (NHSO) to implement the UCS through its head quarter and 13 regional offices.[6] The NHSO functions as a strategic purchaser of health services and. Legislative provisions in Thailand's National Health Security Act 2002 mandate annual public hearings for providers, beneficiaries and other stakeholders in order to improve the performance of the Universal Health Coverage Scheme (UCS). Conclusions: Three recommendations were proposed a) informing stakeholders in advance of the agenda and hearing process to enable their active participation; b) identifying experienced facilitators to navigate the discussions across stakeholders with different or conflicting interests, in order to reach consensus and prioritize recommendations; and c) communicating policy and management responses as a result of public hearings to all stakeholders in a timely manner
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