Quality transparency and competition in hospital care; chances and dilemmas

In the new health care system, quality competition between hospitals will play an additional and growing role. Quality competition requires transparency of quality. However, this transparency can also have unwanted consequences, if hospitals try to manipulate these indicators, or base allocation decisions on a limited subset of indicators. This document addresses several open questions regarding transparency of health care quality. Will players in the health care markets, such as insurers, health care providers, policyholders and patients, use the information on quality? Are there disadvantages to transparency of health care quality? Should the government oblige health care providers to provide the necessary data on quality?

This publication is in Dutch.