Consultancy to Cost the Kebbi and Sokoto Contributory Health Scheme Benefit Packages at Palladium Group

Consultancy to Cost the Kebbi and Sokoto Contributory Health Scheme Benefit Packages

Introduction

Sokoto and Kebbi states have established contributory health schemes with the overall goal of ensuring all residents of the states have access to quality and affordable health care services with financial and social risk protection.  All states have established structures and staffing for the State Health Insurance Agencies (SHIA) and have gone on to develop a benefit package that will ensure guaranteed provision of a package of health services to their residents through the contributory health schemes. To aid the implementation of the schemes, IHP wishes to support the schemes to determine the cost of providing the health services identified in the benefit package. The costing exercise will involve collection of direct and indirect “above site” costs at the facility and LGHA/SPHCDA levels respectively.

The costing study will employ a purchaser perspective, in this case the Contributory Health Scheme(s) will be regarded as the purchaser seeking to estimate the cost of covering the services in the defined benefit packages. The study will cover a sample of the government-owned secondary health facilities and ward-level PHCs in the states as outlined in the table below:

Scope of the Consultancy

The specific responsibilities of the Costing Specialist will be to:

• Develop a comprehensive MS Excel costing model which identifies and disaggregates the inputs (staff time/commodities/diagnostics/operating expenses etc.) required to provide each distinct service within the states’ benefit packages. 
• The benefit packages for Kebbi and Sokoto states are outlined in Annex 1 of this SOW.
• Participate in the training of a team of data collectors (including IHP project and contract staff) on the study objectives, methodology and tool(s) to be applied at the facilities and other levels e.g. Local Government Health Authorities (LGHAs) and/or State Primary Healthcare Department Agencies (SPHCDAs) for above-site costs
• Conduct quality checks on costing data collected by data collectors during the costing study and develop course correction strategies, where necessary
• Liaise with IHP State Health Financing Advisors on the collection of above-site data from the LGHAs and/or SPHCDAs in each of the states, where necessary
• Aggregate direct costs and allocate indirect costs of the required services to determine the total cost of each distinct service within the benefit package. Allocation of indirect costs will be based on criteria/bases agreed by IHP and the state stakeholders
• Compute the average cost of each service within the benefit package and the total average cost of the benefit package. The model should be designed to determine the actual cost and normative cost for each service within the benefit package. Normative costs should be aligned to evidence-based clinical guidelines to ensure technical quality in the provision of services and computation of full costs
• Identify wide variances in service costs across different types of facilities (location, ownership, size and type) and determine the drivers of the variances. The completed costing model containing all assumptions, input data and analyses used in arriving at the benefit package cost must be submitted to IHP in an MS Excel format
• Co-facilitate with IHP staff a results-sharing workshop with the state health contributory schemes and other relevant stakeholders to present the results of the costing study for each state
• Develop and submit a report detailing the methodology, key findings and recommendation of the costing study for each state
• Respond to questions and/or requests for information by IHP as needed during the study and inform of any changes in the timeline for delivery of products associated with the study  
• This is a fixed price consultancy which required the consultant to send both technical and cost proposals. Price does not change after the final cost has been identified and agreed upon.

Kindly follow the link below to access the full package required for the application.