Project Title: Building a Public Dialogue Framework for Defining the Medicare Basket

Research Team:

At Dalhousie University:
Rathwell, T.
Nestman, L.
Kenny, N.
Joffres, C.

At University of Toronto
Deber, R.
Chappell, H.
Conrad, P.
Battema, M.

At Memorial University, Newfoundland
Neville, D.
Chafe, R.

Partners:
Ward, T. Department of Health, Nova Scotia,
Thompson, R. Department of Health and Community Services, Newfoundland,
Nauenberg, E. Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

Project objectives were to (1) To develop a preliminary framework which will guide data collection and analysis regarding the different approaches to collective funding of health services across jurisdictions and sectors; (2) To investigate the approaches to defining the basket of services to be covered across Canada, European countries and the private health insurance sector using this framework; (3) To clarify ethical implications of the identified approaches; (4) To incorporate the findings into a revised framework and design a strategy for conducting dialogue with the revised framework as the guide and, (5) To test the acceptability of the framework and proposed process for conducting dialogue with key decision-makers and community representatives in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces.

This project was funded by a research grant from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, with matching funds from Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research and Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (Grant number RC2-0873-03). Elements of this project formed the basis of the MSc thesis of Health Chappell.

Selected Presentations:

• Rathwell T, Deber R, Neville D, Chafe R, Joffres C, Kenny N, Nestman L. "A Public Dialogue Framework" 2006 CAHSPR Conference, Insight, Interaction and Innovation: New Approaches to Health Services, Research, Policy and Management. Vancouver, B.C., September 17-19, 2006
  

• Chappel H, Deber R, Batema M. "Deciding Who Gets What: Weights, membership, processes and perceptions among Canadian advisory/decision making bodies" The 6th International Conference on Priorities in Health Care. Toronto, ON, September 20-22, 2006.

• Deber, R. "Deciding what to pay for: The Four Screen Model" ICSBHS-2005 Panel on Priority Setting, Montreal, September 2005.

• Chappell, HP, Deber, RB. Decision-making structures in health care resource allocation. A case study of four provinces in Canada. OACCAC Conference, June, 2005.

• Chappell HP, Deber RB, Nestman L, Rathwell T, Neville D, Chafe R, Kenny N. Mapping resource allocation decisions in Canada's health care system. 5th International Healthcare Priorities Conference, Wellington New Zealand, Nov 2004.

Selected Publications:

• Rathwell, T., Deber, R., Kenny, N., Nestman, L., Neville, D., Conrad, P., Nauenberg, E., Thompson, R. & Ward, T. Building a public dialogue framework for defining the medicare basket. Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, 2006. Downloaded from http://www.chsrf.ca/, last accessed 8 February 2007.

• Chappell,Heather (2005): Provincial Structures for Resource Allocation Decision-Making in Health Care: A case study of four provinces in Canada. Master of Science Thesis, University of Toronto, Toronto Ontario.