Casemix Revolution: Maximizing Healthcare Value through National Initiatives

Manal Al Khaliefah ^a, Hefin Jones ^a, Neha Taneja ^a, Abdulrahman Alshehri ^a, Suliman Alomran ^a, Saud Alhamami ^a, Ehab Atassi ^a

Introduction
As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia moves towards achieving its vision 2030 objectives, it calls for massive transformation in the public healthcare sector. This transformation in (KSA) requires that Ministry of Health to move towards value-based care including adopting payment mechanisms that support value-based financing. Therefore, it was acknowledged that there is a need for an entity that facilitates the transformation through implementing innovative solutions to drive transparency, efficiency, and value-based financing. The National Casemix Centre of Excellence (NCCoE) and its key functions are leading several key initiatives to realize the vision objectives. This session gives an overview of collective national initiatives that reflects end-to-end implementation of Casemix concept starting with coding and coding related activities, classification, costing, pricing, efficiency of care, and funding mechanism.

Methods
NCCoE has acknowledged the gaps and pressing needs in the healthcare system and responded to them with multiple initiatives to be conducted on the national level. These initiatives will be the catalyst of healthcare delivery reform. Designing these initiatives was done according to the international best practice, but also, they were customized to fit the local context considering the unique challenges the system is facing.

Results
The Saudi government has an ambitious strategy to its overhaul healthcare system. Therefore, NCCoE is instrumental in driving the ongoing changes. Its initiatives are directly fuelling national endeavours, particularly through the policy department's influence on healthcare practices. Therefore, NCCoE has led several national initiatives that falls within its scope and covering different domains. this includes standardizing coding and coding related operations, development of non-acute Casemix classification, development of costing assurance framework and, costing standards, actuarial governance and national pricing framework, national efficiency targets and national payment strategy. The success of these initiatives paved the way for value-based healthcare implementation. These initiatives are profoundly reshaping the landscape of the Saudi healthcare system and impacting its overall ecosystem.

Conclusions
NCCoE is fulfilling its mission in accelerating the transformation by addressing the gaps in the system following the best practices globally, but also customizing these practices according to the country needs. These customizations involve overcoming systemic challenges such as lack of proper infrastructures and system fragmentation. The centre undertook various initiatives across its core functions, aiming to achieve financial sustainability of health system.


^a Casemix Center of Excellence, Saudi Arabia

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