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Health economics, health financing and payment, results-based financing, social protection
Bio
Sebastian Bauhoff is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he focuses on health policies and programs that are scalable, sustainable, and improve the performance of health systems in low and middle-income settings. His current work investigates innovations in health care financing and service delivery that have the potential to improve access, efficiency and quality of care. Bauhoff’s prior work includes quantitative evaluations of provider and insurance payment systems, such as performance-based financing, and demand-side interventions to improve access and risk-protection of poor households. He holds a PhD in Health Policy/Economics and a MPA in International Development from Harvard University.
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Show Non-CGD Publications
Bauhoff, Sebastian, and Dirk Göpffarth. 2018. “Asylum-Seekers in Germany Differ from Regularly Insured in their Morbidity, Utilizations and Costs of Care.” PLoS ONE 13 (6): e0197881. Published paper (open access)
Bauhoff, Sebastian, Lauren Mayer, and Lila Rabinovich. 2017. “Developing Citizen Report Cards for Primary Health Care in Low and Middle-Income Countries: Results from Cognitive Interviews in Rural Tajikistan.” PLoS ONE 12 (10): e0186745. Published paper (open access)
Josephson, Erik, Jessica Gergen, Martha Coe, Samantha Ski, Supriya Madhavan, and Sebastian Bauhoff. 2017. “How do Performance-Based Financing Programs Measure Quality of Care? A Descriptive Analysis of 68 Quality Checklists from 28 Low and Middle-Income Countries.” Health Policy and Planning 32 (8): 1120-1126. Published paper (open access)
Gergen, Jessica, Erik Josephson, Martha Coe, Samantha Ski, Supriya Madhavan, and Sebastian Bauhoff. 2017. “Quality of Care in Performance-Based Financing: How It Is Incorporated in 32 Programs Across 28 Countries.” Global Health: Science and Practice 5 (1): 90-107. Published paper (open access)
Morton, Matthew; Nagpal, Somil; Sadanandan, Rajeev & Bauhoff, Sebastian “India’s Largest Hospital Insurance Program Faces Challenges in Using Claims Data to Measure Quality,” Health Affairs 2016, 35(10): 1792-1799
Ngo, Diana; Sherry, Tisamarie & Bauhoff, Sebastian “Health System Changes under Pay-For-Performance: the Effects of Rwanda’s National Programme on Facility Inputs,” Health Policy and Planning 2017, 32(1): 11-20
Sherry, Tisamarie; Bauhoff, Sebastian & Mohanan, Manoj “Paying for Performance in Health Care: Results from the Randomized Roll-Out of Rwanda's National Program,” American Journal of Health Economics 2017, 3(2): 192-226
Lee, Elizabeth; Madhavan, Supriya & Bauhoff, Sebastian “Low Levels and High Heterogeneity in the Quality of Facility-Based Antenatal Care in Developing Countries: Evidence from the 2010 Kenya Service Provision Assessment,” Health Policy and Planning 2016, 31(6): 777-784
Bauhoff, Sebastian; Tkacheva, Olesya; Rabinovich, Lila & Bogdan, Olena “Opportunities and Considerations for Citizen Report Cards for Primary Care: Qualitative evidence from Rural Tajikistan,” Health Policy and Planning 2016, 31(2): 259-266
Mohanan, Manoj; Bauhoff, Sebastian; Singer Babiarz, Kimberly; LaForgia, Gerald; Miller, Grant & Singh, Kultar. “Impact of the Public Private Partnership Chiranjeevi Yojana on Institutional Deliveries and Birth Outcomes in Gujarat, India: A Difference-in-Difference Analysis,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2014, 92 (3): 187-194
Bauhoff, Sebastian “Systematic Self-Report Bias in Health Data: Impact on Estimating Cross-Sectional and Treatment Effects.” Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology 2011, 11 (1-2): 44-53
Bauhoff, Sebastian; Hotchkiss, David & Smith, Owen “Responsiveness and Satisfaction with Providers and Carriers in a Safety Net Insurance Program: Evidence from Georgia’s Medical Insurance for the Poor,” Health Policy 2011, 102 (2-3): 286-294
Bauhoff, Sebastian; Hotchkiss, David & Smith, Owen “The Impact of Medical Insurance for the Poor in Georgia: A Regression Discontinuity Approach,” Health Economics 2011, 20 (11): 1362-1378
More From Sebastian Bauhoff
April 11, 2018
Publication
We examine alternative strategies for targeted sampling of health clinics for independent verification. Our results indicate that machine learning methods, particularly Random Forest, outperform other approaches and can increase the cost-effectiveness of verification activities.
March 22, 2018
Publication
In this paper we combine fourteen years of high-resolution satellite data on forest loss with individual-level survey data on malaria in more than 60,000 rural children in 17 countries in Africa, and fever in more than 470,000 rural children in 41 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. We did not find that deforestation increases malaria prevalence nor that intermediate levels of forest cover have higher malaria prevalence.
March 22, 2018
Blog Post
Deforestation isn’t associated with higher malaria prevalence in children in 17 African countries. Nor is it associated with higher fever in children in 41 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. That’s the surprising conclusion of our new CGD working paper.
January 25, 2018
Event
Numerous studies find that child health suffers when children are exposed to conflict, and armed conflicts are more likely to occur in poor countries with weak states. Nigeria is among the most conflict-prone countries in the world, experiencing the highest number of conflict-related deaths of all Sub-Saharan African countries in many of the years since 2000, with a peak in 2012. In this paper, researchers at the Urban Institute and the Center for Global Development are studying the relationship between child health and conflict in Nigeria by combining geo-coded data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 2013 and the Social Conflict Analysis Database. In both urban and rural areas of Nigeria, they find significant increases in child wasting (acute malnutrition) in 2013 associated with proximity to violent conflict in 2012. In urban areas, infant mortality also increased significantly in 2003-2013, when the mother was exposed to conflict during pregnancy. They will discuss these findings and their implications, as well as some of the challenges to studying health in conflict-torn places.
September 15, 2017
Blog Post
Clear and rigorous evidence on the contributions of US global health programs is more important than ever, as the White House and lawmakers discuss and debate budgets and the future of US support to global health. Such information aids policymakers who must prioritize support to effective public health programs.
June 8, 2017
Event
A central issue in designing performance incentive contracts is whether to reward the production of outputs versus use of inputs: the former rewards efficiency and innovation in production, while the latter imposes less risk. But the promise of output-based contracts may remain unmet if providers lack the requisite skills to innovate and increase performance. In this seminar, Manoj Mohanan will present on new research that uses a field experiment in Karnataka, India to explore three questions: How does an input versus an output incentive contract affect maternity care, as measured by rates of postpartum hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, sepsis, and neonatal survival? Do providers under input incentive contracts use different strategies and input combinations than providers under output incentive contracts? And, finally, does the skill level of the provider make a difference for their performance under the input versus output incentive contracts?
April 6, 2017
Event
This session will convene leading experts to address the critical issue of measuring and improving quality of healthcare in low income settings. In order to improve the health of the world's population, we need to increase access to healthcare and simultaneously ensure that the care provided is of sufficiently high quality (i.e. care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable). Healthcare systems need to think beyond access and coverage of healthcare services; they need to start measuring and systematically improving quality of healthcare in LMICs.
January 30, 2017
Blog Post
In 2007, the World Bank established the multi-donor Health Results Innovation Trust Fund (HRITF) to support and evaluate low-income country government efforts to pay providers based on their results in health care, with a focus on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition. A decade later, the HRITF has had substantial impact on how governments and aid partners think and talk about health care financing, and the term “results-based financing” or RBF is now well-established in the policy vernacular.
Pages
December 15, 2015
Publication
Founded in 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) is one of the world’s largest multilateral health funders, disbursing $3–$4 billion a year across 100-plus countries. Many of these countries rely on Global Fund monies to finance their respective disease responses—and for their citizens, the efficient and effective use of Global Fund monies can be the difference between life and death.
March 22, 2018
Publication
In this paper we combine fourteen years of high-resolution satellite data on forest loss with individual-level survey data on malaria in more than 60,000 rural children in 17 countries in Africa, and fever in more than 470,000 rural children in 41 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. We did not find that deforestation increases malaria prevalence nor that intermediate levels of forest cover have higher malaria prevalence.
May 12, 2015
Blog Post
Using research to inform policy often involves reading scientific articles in costly books and journals. But for some policymakers and analysts these costs may be prohibitively expensive, leaving them without access to critical information.
January 4, 2016
Blog Post
Recruiting community members with basic training for health promotion and care delivery is increasingly popular among development programs in low- and middle-income countries. This approach has great appeal: it could boost accountability and local ownership, and reduce program costs. Though the potential benefits of the approach are easily touted, the full costs remain murky and are often an afterthought.
May 7, 2015
Blog Post
For better or worse, there are many lessons other countries can learn from the United States’ experience in hea
April 29, 2016
Blog Post
At the World Bank’s Annual Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Financing Forum this year, I took part in a mock competition to help determine the topic of next year’s forum. I was up against Larry Gostin, who argued that the 2017 forum should focus on equity and human rights, and Sara Bennett, who made the case for it to be the political economy. My pitch was for the forum to focus on efficiency—or value for money—in UHC reforms, and here’s why.
March 21, 2016
Blog Post
May 19, 2016
Event
Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), which can lead to weight gain, is rising in middle-income countries (MICs) in tandem with the prevalence of obesity. Evidence from high-income countries suggests that taxing sodas may reduce consumption, and governments in many MICs are considering such taxes. In this seminar, Sharon Nakhimovsky and Andrea Feigl will present findings from a systematic review of ten observational studies from Brazil, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, and South Africa that assess post-tax price increases, change in demand for SSBs and other products overall and by socio-economic groups, and the effect of SSB price change on obesity prevalence. The review indicates that price increases from a tax may result in reduced consumption of SSBs. Evidence also suggests a negative relationship between SSB prices and obesity prevalence, after accounting for substitution effects. Based on this analysis, taxes on SSBs may be a promising policy tool for MICs to address rising obesity prevalence.
Pages
April 11, 2018
Publication
We examine alternative strategies for targeted sampling of health clinics for independent verification. Our results indicate that machine learning methods, particularly Random Forest, outperform other approaches and can increase the cost-effectiveness of verification activities.
March 22, 2018
Publication
In this paper we combine fourteen years of high-resolution satellite data on forest loss with individual-level survey data on malaria in more than 60,000 rural children in 17 countries in Africa, and fever in more than 470,000 rural children in 41 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. We did not find that deforestation increases malaria prevalence nor that intermediate levels of forest cover have higher malaria prevalence.
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