An exploratory study of tracking rehabilitation-related expenditures in Georgia for improving the Systems of Health Accounts (SHA) 2011 methodology

The Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (Accelerator) is a global initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through a Cooperative Agreement, with co-funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Results for Development (R4D) lead the Accelerator.

The Inclusive Development Hub of USAID’s Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI) has engaged with the Accelerator to empirically investigate challenges in tracking and collecting rehabilitation expenditure data in health accounts (HAs) within the System of Health Accounts (SHA) 2011 methodology. In partnership with the World Health Organization, the Accelerator intended to develop a policy publication demonstrating the importance of ensuring access to reliable rehabilitation expenditure data and offering guidance to country HA teams to improve rehabilitation expenditure data production.

The Accelerator commissioned the Consulting Group Curatio Sarl (CGC) to conduct an exploratory study of tracking rehabilitation expenditures in Georgia. The exploratory study was expected to eventually benefit the country in rehabilitation expenditure tracking while contributing to developing guidance on reporting rehabilitation expenditure globally within the SHA 2011 methodology.

The CGC team:

  • Developed a methodology for the study, including approaches or collecting data from key informants, funders, and tools necessary for carrying out the approach
  • Prepared an interim descriptive report on rehabilitation spending in Georgia, providing an overview of the following:
    • The range of rehabilitation funding sources, providers, and the definitions/parameters for ‘rehabilitation’ they utilize
    • The availability of data capturing rehabilitation spending
    • The range of rehabilitation spending data sources, their data collection and management practices, and how data feeds into existing health account production processes (to include a map of rehabilitation data flows within the scope of SHA 2011)
    • The processes undertaken by the consultants to obtain data from data sources
  • Produced a final report summarizing the process undertaken by the consultants to carry out the exploratory study, including the stakeholders engaged, the constraints in obtaining and processing data for rehabilitation in health accounts, and recommendations on overcoming limitations in data availability and quality. Sub-components/annexes to include:
    • Illustration of available rehabilitation expenditure data, showing total spending by mode of provision (inpatient, outpatient, day-care and home-based care), units (i.e., beds, visits, etc.), type of providers, diseases (by ICHA-DIS), and factors of provision.
    • Assessment of data quality and discussion of data transformation required to make it “mappable” to respective SHA 2011 classifications.
    • Review and feedback on guidance on reporting rehabilitation expenditure within SHA 2011 methodology.