Project ASSPRO CEE 2007

ASSPRO CEE 2007 is a collaborative research project co-funded by
the European Commission under the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities theme. The project duration is 5 years starting from March 2008 to February 2013.
The maximum funding from the European Commission is up to 1,446,496 Euro.

The aim of the project is to identify a comprehensive set of tangible evidence-based criteria suitable for the assessment of patient payment policies and to develop a projection tool that can be used to analyze the efficiency, equity and quality effects of these polices.

The project relies on research methods from a broad range of fields related to socio-economic science and humanities. In particular, the project applies quantitative techniques (such as modelling, trend analysis, revealed and stated preference methods) combined with qualitative data to study micro and macro outcomes of patient payment policies.

Project research objectives:

1.To identify a comprehensive set of tangible evidence-based criteria (incl. economic, social, institutional, historical geographical, ethical, cultural, demographic and sector-specific criteria) for the assessment of patient payment policies, and to validate them in an application in Central and Eastern Europe.

2.To develop a reliable and valid research instrument for studying the level and type of informal payments for health care services and to apply this instrument in Central and Eastern European countries to analyze the pattern of informal patient payments, as well as their effect on health care consumption.

3.To develop a model of consumer demand for health care services under official patient payments that accounts for the potential impact of informal payments for health care services, the behavior of health care providers, and consumer preferences, and to validate this model in an application to Central and Eastern European countries for studying the micro-level effects of official patient payments.

4.To develop a projection tool for the analysis of macro-level efficiency, equity and quality effects of patient payment policies using the model of consumer demand for health care services under official patient payments, and to validate this projection tool in an application in Central and Eastern Europe.