The Research On The Information Publicity Of New Cooperative Medicine Scheme

Since the implementation of the New Cooperative Medicine Scheme(NCMS), there has been much research.However,few have focused on the perspective of accountability and transparency or information publicity.In this Study,the information publicity,transparency and information asymmetry of the NCMS in MengZi County is analyzed.The international political theory of "accountability" and "information asymmetry" has been used as a framework in this study.The study focused on the analysis of the information publicity,information flow and transparency among the three major stakeholders,namely the local government,the health service institutions and farmers who have participated in the NCMS.The problem of information asymmetry was also analyzed.Case studies done in this project took place in Yunnan Province,where MengZi County is selected.Two townships in MengZi County were selected and within each township two villages were randomly selected as research sites.The research methods used in this study included existing data collection and analysis,interviews,and observations.The study focused on information publicity that is part of accountability theory and the information asymmetry among the three major stakeholders was also analyzed.The research collect documents and discipline materials of three years since NCMS is carried out in the case county;Carrying out focus group discussion and in-depth interview among main stakeholders of NCMS:government(state,county, township management office and all levels of supervision committees),health facility(management and service people of county,township and country level), farmers(male,female,middle age and old villagers),totally forty interviewees; Selecting different facilities to observe the procedure of medical service, reimbursement and out-relief.The study revealed that:(1) Effort need to be made to strength transparency and information disclosure in the NCMS.(2)Information flow between designated health service institutions and governmental departments is insufficient;(3)Government and village-level medical institutions lack transparency,it related to the unclear perspective of accountability;(4)There is asymmetric information between Government and the designated medical institutions and how to increase the transparency and overcome the result caused by it remain a challenge.(5) Information publicity between designated medical institutions and farmers is insufficient,the current way is not yet efficient;(6) The current farmer information feedback mechanism is not yet perfect.(7) There is insufficient attention to the privacy of farmers when information is disclosed by the medical institutions to the public. As a result,we propose(1)Suggest the case county to systematic review and sum up the experience of strengthening transparency and information disclosure in the NCMS; (2) To take effective measures to increase the information publicity among the three major stakeholders.(3) To encourage farmers who seek NCMS information and to set up the information feedback mechanism.(4) Due measure should be taken to protect the privacy of farmers in information publicity.(5)How to protect the farmer's privacy during information publicity is a problem needs further research.(6) To separate the NCMS management office with the township hospitals,and to staff medical professionals at the NCMS management office at both county and township level,so as to reduce the information asymmetry.