Pushing the envelope: Advancing Canadian healthcare payment models through evaluation

Abstract

When health systems aim to improve, two key considerations tend to be front and centre: cost and quality. On the cost side, health spending in Canada continues to rise. On the quality side, improvement is needed across the country. As the primary funder of healthcare, governments’ historical role has focused on managing costs through their powers to set budgets, decide who gets paid, and how. Increasingly, governments are recognizing that the ways in which they choose to pay providers and organizations can also have an impact on the quality of care provided. Using Ontario as an example, we present a Canadian vision for modernizing how healthcare is organized and reimbursed and for using evidence and evaluation as the backbone for iterating new models. Realizing this vision will move Canada closer to international leadership in delivering high-quality, affordable care.