| Observations of policy convergence and the cross-national diffusion of ideas, knowledge and policies have raised the question in which way countries might learn from their peers. In this article we examine the role of cross-national learning in the case of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs). Therefore, we review the spread of this policy instrument and analyze the implemen-tation of DRGs in more detail in three late-adopting countries: Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The case studies show that the implementation of this policy instrument required intense studies, cooperation with stakeholders and adjustment to country-specific needs. The countries learned from foreign experience but it was not until the introduction of a regulatory framework for competition between sickness funds that DRGs came on the political agenda. While Germany and Switzerland drew upon foreign DRG-models, the Netherlands developed an alternative system to classify patients according to casemix. |
Schmid, Achim
Götze, Ralf
2009
in: International Social Security Review 62 (4), 21-40.
[Also available in French, German, and Spanish]
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