Estimation of health care costs and cost recovery: the case of Rafidya Hospital in Palestine.

The purpose of this study is to develop an estimation model for health care costs and cost recovery, and evaluate service sustainability under an uncertain environment. The Palestinian National Authority's recent focus on improving financial accountability supports the need to research health care costs in the Palestinian territories. We examine data from Rafidya Hospital from 2005-2009 and use step-down allocation to distribute overhead costs. We use an ingredient approach to estimate the costs and revenues of health services, and logarithmic estimation to prospectively estimate the demand for 2011. Our results indicate that while cost recovery is generally insufficient for long-term sustainability, some services can recover their costs in the short run. Our results provide information useful for health care policy makers in setting multiple-goal policies related to health care financing in Palestine, and provide an important initiative in the estimation of health service costs.

The association of willingness-to-pay and patient attributes: a cost-volume-profit analysis of cardiac catheter unit services in Ramallah Hospital, Palestine.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association of willingness-to-pay and patient attributes in relation to the multi-service cost-volume-profit structure of a cardiac catheter unit in Ramallah Hospital. This article contributes to the literature by providing primary evidence on patient willingness-to-pay, by identifying the specific break-even parameters of three hospital cardiac catheter unit service types (diagnosis, balloon, and pacemaker), and by demonstrating the cross-subsidization of patient income groups that is inherent in the existing hospital rate structure. Our results provide information useful for (1) evidence-based policy making with respect to hospital rate setting and cross-subsidies of patient income groups; (2) the advancement of hospital management, by demonstrating the estimated variable and fixed cost parameters and the impact of patient revenue mix on the profitability of cardiac catheter unit services; and (3) the advancement of theory, by documenting the relationship of patient demand and the cost of supply in a multi-patient-group, multi-service hospital setting.