Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos

A pilot eliminating user fees associated with delivery at the point of services was introduced in two districts of Laos in March 2009. Following two years of implementation, an evaluation was conducted to assess the pilot impact, as well as to document the pilot design and implementation challenges....

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Main Authors:	Boudreaux, Chantelle, Chanthala, Phetdara, Lindelow, Magnus
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Public Library of Science 2015
Subjects:	maternal mortality healthcare delivery Millennium Development Goals MDGs
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23200

id	okr-10986-23200
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-232002021-04-23T14:04:13Z Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos Boudreaux, Chantelle Chanthala, Phetdara Lindelow, Magnus maternal mortality healthcare delivery Millennium Development Goals MDGs A pilot eliminating user fees associated with delivery at the point of services was introduced in two districts of Laos in March 2009. Following two years of implementation, an evaluation was conducted to assess the pilot impact, as well as to document the pilot design and implementation challenges. Study results show that, even in the presence of the substantial access and cultural barriers, user fees associated with delivery at health facilities act as a serious deterrent to care seeking behavior. We find a tripling of facility-based delivery rates in the intervention areas, compared to a 40% increase in the control areas. While findings from the control region suggest that facility-based delivery rates may be on the rise across the country, the substantially higher increase in the pilot areas highlight the impact of financial burden associated with facility-based delivery fees. These fees can play an important role in rapidly increasing the uptake of facility delivery to reach the national targets and, ultimately, to improve maternal and child health outcomes. The pilot achieved important gains while relying heavily on capacity and systems already in place. However, the high cost associated with monitoring and evaluation suggest broad-scale expansion of the pilot activities is likely to necessitate targeted capacity building initiatives, especially in areas with limited district level capacity to manage funds and deliver detailed and timely reports. 2015-12-03T19:52:23Z 2015-12-03T19:52:23Z 2014-03-14 Journal Article PLoS ONE http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23200 en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Public Library of Science Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Lao People's Democratic Republic
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	maternal mortality healthcare delivery Millennium Development Goals MDGs
spellingShingle	maternal mortality healthcare delivery Millennium Development Goals MDGs Boudreaux, Chantelle Chanthala, Phetdara Lindelow, Magnus Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos
geographic_facet	Lao People's Democratic Republic
description	A pilot eliminating user fees associated with delivery at the point of services was introduced in two districts of Laos in March 2009. Following two years of implementation, an evaluation was conducted to assess the pilot impact, as well as to document the pilot design and implementation challenges. Study results show that, even in the presence of the substantial access and cultural barriers, user fees associated with delivery at health facilities act as a serious deterrent to care seeking behavior. We find a tripling of facility-based delivery rates in the intervention areas, compared to a 40% increase in the control areas. While findings from the control region suggest that facility-based delivery rates may be on the rise across the country, the substantially higher increase in the pilot areas highlight the impact of financial burden associated with facility-based delivery fees. These fees can play an important role in rapidly increasing the uptake of facility delivery to reach the national targets and, ultimately, to improve maternal and child health outcomes. The pilot achieved important gains while relying heavily on capacity and systems already in place. However, the high cost associated with monitoring and evaluation suggest broad-scale expansion of the pilot activities is likely to necessitate targeted capacity building initiatives, especially in areas with limited district level capacity to manage funds and deliver detailed and timely reports.
format	Journal Article
author	Boudreaux, Chantelle Chanthala, Phetdara Lindelow, Magnus
author_facet	Boudreaux, Chantelle Chanthala, Phetdara Lindelow, Magnus
author_sort	Boudreaux, Chantelle
title	Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos
title_short	Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos
title_full	Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos
title_fullStr	Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos
title_full_unstemmed	Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos
title_sort	assessing the elimination of user fees for delivery services in laos
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2015
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23200
_version_	1764453184186613760

Assessing the Elimination of User Fees for Delivery Services in Laos

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