Long abstract

Publications & Documents

This paper provides an overview on the current state of SHA pilot implementations in OECD countries. It summarises the background of the new OECD manual A System of Health Accounts (SHA), which was published in May 2000, and provides an overview on the latest developments in international co-operation of work on health accounts and the SHA.

The SHA manual provides a conceptual framework and estimation rules for health accounting and proposes a three-dimensional International Classification for Health Accounts (ICHA) that provides breakdowns of health expenditure by functions of care, provider industries, and sources of funding. The SHA is intended for use as a model to set up national health accounts, for revising and amending existing national health accounts or as a model to map detailed national health accounts to SHA standard tables for the purpose of international comparisons. The main concepts of the SHA and of the ICHA are used in OECD Health Data, an annually updated database of health statistics in OECD countries.