Search
Publications
Strengthening primary health care and reducing overprovision of low-value specialist care: policy options for Cyprus
- Cyprus has expanded health care coverage and reduced financial barriers to access, but inefficiencies remain as a result of weaknesses in primary health care (PHC) and misaligned financial incentives throughout the health system.
- In particular, there is an overuse of outpatient specialists and underuse of primary care due in part to unclear care pathways, weak gatekeeping, cultural preferences, and financial drivers.
- In this brief we consider a range of policy options to reduce unnecessary use of specialists and strengthen primary care based on international experience.
- Evidence suggests that supply-side interventions are the most effective way to steer provider behaviours. In Cyprus, these could focus on:
- improving payment models for primary care doctors
- use of more strategic purchasing
- workforce changes (e.g. incentivizing group practices).
- Demand-side interventions could include:
- enforcing limits on how often patients can change their primary care doctor
- using patient decision aids
- revisiting co-payment structures for specialist visits without referrals.
- The above could be complemented with tracking of provider behaviour, as a way to enforce referral rules consistently and eventually link budgets and contracts directly to performance.
- Population health needs assessment is an important prerequisite needed to inform resource allocations, budgets and other policy decisions.
- Efforts to strengthen PHC and rationalize the use of outpatient specialist care can help Cyprus move towards a health system that is more sustainable, cost-effective and centred on delivering the right care in the right setting.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign Up