Establishing Appropriate Agency Relationships for Providers in China

Liu, Yu; Saltman, Richard B.

To be sure, provide-side reform in China is more complex than only the 2 issues described here. Other factors will also influence the efficiency and effectiveness of health care reform efforts, for example, public funding to public hospitals, 14 public hospital governance, 71 resource allocation between rural and urban areas, 72,73 health care professional workforce development, 74 patients' experience, 75 community-based primary care, 76 and associated referral system. 7 However, as Yip, Wagstaff, and Hsiao 77 summarized earlier, more in-depth understanding of physicians' incentives are necessary, and as La Forgia and Yip pointed out subsequently, 28 the critical reform direction for providers is the alignment of providers' interests with the general social welfare rather than their individual income. All of these directions require the 2 aspects we propose: minimizing the INQUIRY financial tie between tertiary-level public hospitals and physicians, and establishing a high-standard physician professionalism system in China.