PHC Costing, Analysis, and Planning (PHC-CAP) Tool
PHC Costing, Analysis, and Planning (PHC-CAP) Tool
Overview
The PHC Costing, Analysis, and Planning (PHC-CAP) Tool helps program planners and decision makers increase coverage and improve the quality of primary health care (PHC) services. The tool allows users to monitor their PHC performance and identify where additional funding is needed to deliver quality services across health care systems, specifically at which geographic locations and for which services or facility levels.
Guided by the WHO’s PHC Monitoring Framework and Indicators, the PHC-CAP Tool provides information to determine the overall cost and use of services, including the PHC cost per capita, cost per service and program (and percent of cost drivers), number of inpatient and outpatient services per clinical staff, and average daily service output per clinical staff. The PHC-CAP Tool has two main components:
- An actual costing model, which allows users to estimate the resources currently being spent on PHC services
- A normative costing model, which allows users to estimate the cost of providing services according to norms and quality standards at different coverage levels
Users can compare the actual and normative costs to estimate the financial gap in resources required to achieve universal coverage of quality PHC services. Actual data can be inputted for a sample of health facilities, stratified by facility level and geographical location.
Request the Tool
Use the button below to request a copy of the PHC-CAP Tool or contact MSH’s Health Economics & Financing team directly at fintools@msh.org.
Country Reports
MSH and partners undertook comprehensive analyses of PHC costs in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria. The aim was to assess both the actual and normative costs, shedding light on the existing resource gap in delivering PHC services within public sector facilities. The results offer crucial insights into sub-national cost variations and resource requirements, providing valuable guidance for the implementation of government PHC reforms and efforts in resource mobilization. The key takeaway from these findings emphasizes the imperative to “spend more and spend better” — signaling the necessity to enhance the mobilization of PHC resources and pinpoint opportunities for optimizing the efficiency of PHC services.
Community Health Planning and Costing Tool (Version 2.0) Handbook
The Community Health Planning and Costing Tool, a UNICEF tool developed by Management Sciences for Health, is designed to cost packages of community health services (CHS) and produce results to help assess performance, plan future services, and prepare investment cases. This handbook, which corresponds to the Community Health Planning and Costing Tool version 2.0, describes the process for costing community health programs and packages of services.
Leading Voices: MSH’s Colin Gilmartin on Helping Countries Improve Their Primary Health Care Systems
How can low- and middle-income countries maximize the return on investment of public health funding?
In the latest video in our Leading Voices series, Colin Gilmartin, MSH’s Principal Technical Advisor for Health Care Financing, discusses how ministries of health and their partners in six countries are successfully using MSH’s new Primary Health Care Costing Analysis and Planning Tool (PHC-CAP Tool) with the goal of ensuring that adequate funding is available for strengthening and sustaining quality primary health care services.