Strengthening Health Systems in Armenia
Project Description
The CGHD has collaborated with the Cardno Group (formerly Emerging Markets Group—EMG) to provide assistance to the government of Armenia in health policy reform with a focus on the development of alternate methods of financing and payment.
The project was designed to improve quality and accessibility of primary health care in the country. For the first time, Armenians could select the primary health care provider of their choice; distribution of primary care funds is now determined, in part, by this enrollment. Beginning in 2011, primary care providers will receive incentive payments for meeting quality targets. However, project analysis of data on household health expenditures still shows substantial out-of-pocket payments that are a barrier to necessary drugs and health services.
Working with Armenian staff of Cardno and officials from the State Health Agency (that pays health providers), the CGHD helped to:
- Develop a model now used to update payments for laboratory services;
- Propose and analyze alternative “capitation” formulas for distributing state funds to primary care providers;
- Design procedures to audit the new performance incentive payments; and
- Show how many Armenian households are forced to pay amounts for health services that would be considered “catastrophic” in other societies.
This project was conducted under TASC 2. Learn more here.
Project Details
| Principal Investigator | Rich Feeley |
| Boston University Co-Investigators | Taryn Vian |
| Collaborators |
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| Country(ies) | Armenia |
| Dates of Research | 2005 – 2011 |
| Donor/Funder |  United States Agency for International Development (USAID) |