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Table 3 Strategies for reducing cost, generating income, and increasing volume

From: Business models for primary health care delivery in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping study of nine social entrepreneurs

Financial sustainability strategies

Mechanism

Costs

Bulk purchase of generic medicines

Purchasing generic medicines directly from suppliers allow organizations to negotiate lower prices as well as eliminating the cost incurred by intermediaries

Paramedical staff

Training paramedical staff to treat simple cases lowers the cost of salaries

Laboratory service

Running laboratory tests in own centralized laboratory saves the transportation and service cost of referring to outside laboratories.

Income

Flat-rate pricing

Charging a low flat-rate price to all patients save the direct and opportunity cost of measuring each patient’s socio-economic status

Alternative revenue streams

Having alternative streams of revenue to support health services lowers cost to patients by subsidizing the cost of treatment

Subscription packages

Subscription packages allows financial pooling that lowers the cost to patients by distributing the cost of treatment among all subscribers

Scaling strategies

Mechanism

Scaling physically

Chains, franchises and mobile units increase volume of patients by widening geographical access

Scaling virtually

Telemedicine increases volume of patients by increasing access to hard-to-reach areas and saving the cost of transportation