Effects of Patient Mobility on Healthcare Systems

Abstract

Due to the European Cross-Border Directive, the provision of quality healthcare in EU implies for patients the possibility to decide to receive medical treatments in their residential country or to move to non-residential ones. Such option is likely to disclose both positive effects and unintended consequences. This chapter investigates healthcare mobility issues by adopting a dynamic performance management view (i.e., combining building blocks of performance management and system dynamics). The outcome of the research is a causal model tailored to the Italian case and depicting key actors, processes, and relationships within a comprehensive feedback structure. The chapter frames the phenomenon of patients' mobility into the public management theory, describes the modelling steps, and proposes quantitative simulations of alternative policies. Such approach can prospectively support policymakers' decisions, contributing to the debate on how to deliver sustainable care at a state level and hypothesizing scenarios following a sustained application of the new EU regulations.