Performance in Health Outcomes Index

Why in news?

Niti Aayog has released the Performance in Health Outcomes Index.

What is Performance in Health Outcomes Index?

• The NITI Aayog in collaboration with the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) and World Bank released the Performance in Health Outcomes Index.
• It is a composite index that captures overall performance of States in health along with annual improvements in outcomes, governance and processes.
• It uses 24 different indicators to rank the states.
• States have been ranked in three categories larger States, smaller States and Union Territories to allow for better comparability.
• The overall objective of the index is to highlight the top performers and States that are making significant improvements.

What are the findings of the Index?

• Kerala, ranks at the top in terms of overall performance, however, with respect to annual incremental progress, it ranks at the bottom.
• This is because it has already made significant progress in health outcomes, and showing marginal improvements when the baseline is fairly strong is more challenging.
• Among the larger States, Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu have emerged as the top performers, whereas Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir have shown the maximum improvement in annual performance.
• These states have reduced neonatal mortality, under-5 mortality rates, and increased immunisation coverage, institutional deliveries, and total case notification rate of tuberculosis.

What is the significance of this Index?

• The index will play an important role in shifting the discourse from inputs and outputs to the achievement of health outcomes.
• The index can also serve as a catalyst for enhancing the timeliness, accuracy and relevance of data systems in the health sector.
• In areas such as health, promoting competitive and cooperative federalism becomes more important as most of the action happens at the State-level.
• The trend of devolving a larger share of resources and increasing spending by States is likely to become stronger on account of greater decentralisation and urbanisation.
• By ranking States not just in terms of their overall performance but also their annual incremental progress, the index will nudge them towards transformative action in health.

What else needs to be done?

• Financing mechanisms need to be redesigned to act as levers for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the health system.
• There is a critical data gaps in areas like non-communicable diseases and out-of-pocket expenditure in public health facilities to the front, Data systems needs to be strengthened to address such gaps.
• Availability of credible outcome data at more frequent intervals is critical for guiding health system action as well as putting health-related issues at the centre of the public discourse.
• Promoting competition needs to be accompanied by the provision of technical support in the form of human capital and management practices.
• This is important because the States that are lagging behind are typically the ones that have weaker capacities.

Source: Business Line