Suchergebnisse

OBJECTIVE: To measure the provincial government cost of mental health–related activities for youth ages 12 to 17 in Alberta in 2014 to 2015. METHODS: The target population was Alberta youth ages 12 to 17 (the federal justice definition) who received or were funded for mental health–related or complementary services from Alberta Health Services, Alberta Health, Alberta Human Services, Alberta Justice and Solicitor General, and Alberta Education (public schools). Data on services and expenditures were obtained from each source for the target youth population. RESULTS: Costs for mental health–related services for all ministries were $175 million for 27,169 youth who used mental health services as defined by Policy Wise, $6460 per youth. Public school special education supplements for youth with emotional problems was the largest group, amounting to 30% of all costs. Other prominent sources of expenditures were hospital inpatient mental health services (18%), community mental health services (11%), physician mental health services (10%), and secure services with treatment requiring judicial approval (9%). CONCLUSION: Economists in several countries have developed countrywide measures of mental health expenditures and have used these to generate national benchmarks for mental health spending. We have estimated spending for Alberta provincial mental health and addiction services for a distinct and highly vulnerable group. This measure can be used to develop measures and benchmarks for other provinces, which will be valuable policy indicators.

Cost Containment and Efficiency in National Health Systems: A Global Comparison; Contents; Preface; List of Contributors; 1 Introduction and Summary; 2 Canada; 3 England; 4 Finland; 5 Germany; 6 The Netherlands; 7 Japan; 8 New Zealand; 9 Sweden; Index.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on FP finances in Alberta. DESIGN: A financial model that included fees, visits per day, number of days of practice, and overhead costs. SETTING: Alberta before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. PARTICIPANTS: Hypothetical fee-for-service FP practices. INTERVENTIONS: Changes in practice modes caused by the pandemic and changes to fees set by the Government of Alberta (no interventions were controlled by the researchers). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Annual average FP billings and annual average FP income after overhead expenses. RESULTS: Practice changes related to COVID-19 could result in a reduction in average FP income (billings after expenses) of 27% to 78%. CONCLUSION: Practice pattern changes, including the rapid adoption of telemedicine owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, will reduce incomes for fee-for-service community FP practices in Alberta. Fees at current levels could make some practices unsustainable.

In Canada, coverage for ambulatory prescription drug expenditures is provided to some groups by provincial drug plans through a provincial formulary. Little is known about the drugs provincial formularies give access to. We report the variation in availability of new drug molecules (NDM) across provincial formularies. We identified 108 NDM approved in Canada between 1991 and 1998. From each drug plan bulletin or formulary, we abstracted names of NDM listed as per 15 January 1999. We compared the level of listing across provinces using kappa coefficients. In the Quebec, BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan formularies, more than 70% of the NDM were listed. In four provinces, this proportion was lower than 50%. In general, the agreement between formularies was poor. There is a wide variation across provinces in terms of NDM listed in the formularies. This variation reflects inter-provincial differences in the way drugs are selected for coverage.