The definition of prices for inpatient care in Poland in the absence of cost data

Abstract

The health reform of 1999 in Poland introduced market-like relations in the health care sector. The oligopsonic and the current monopsomic position of the payer makes prices for health care products purchased in this quasi-market low and does not usually take into account the costs of production. Despite a long history of cost calculation in the system, a systematic and reliable assessment of costs is still lacking which would help in setting up fair financing. At the same time providers complain about the dictatorship of the National Health Fund (NHF) yet they rarely resign from contracts with the NHF when they have the chance to conclude one.