Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Health care expenditure quantifies the economic resources dedicated to health functions, excluding capital investment. Healthcare expenditure concerns itself primarily with healthcare goods and services that are consumed by resident units, irrespective of where that consumption takes place (it may be in the rest of the world) or who is paying for it. As such, exports of healthcare goods and services (to non-resident units) are excluded, whereas imports of healthcare goods and services for final use are included. Health care expenditure data provide information on expenditure in the functionally defined area of health distinct by provider category (e.g. hospitals, general practitioners), function category (e.g. services of curative care, rehabilitative care, clinical laboratory, patient transport, prescribed medicines) and financing scheme (e.g. social security, private insurance company, household). For the collection of the data on health care expenditure the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts (ICHA) is used. SHA sets out an integrated system of comprehensive and internationally comparable accounts and provides a uniform framework of basic accounting rules and a set of standard tables for reporting health expenditure data. The System of Health Accounts - SHA 2011 is a statistical reference manual giving a comprehensive description of the financial flows in health care.
It provides a set of revised classifications of health care functions, providers of health care goods and services and financing schemes. The SHA is currently used as a basis for a joint data collection by OECD, Eurostat and WHO on health care expenditure. The manual sets out in more detail the boundaries, the definitions and the concepts of health accounting – responding to health care systems around the globe with very different organisational and financing arrangements.
Accounting period: Health expenditure and financing data pertain to the calendar year (1 January to 31 December).
healthcare expenditure by financing schemes (ICHA-HF) — which classifies the types of financing arrangements through which people obtain health services; health care financing schemes include direct payments by households for services and goods and third-party financing arrangements;
healthcare expenditure by function (ICHA-HC) — which details the split in healthcare expenditure following the purpose of healthcare activities — such as, curative care, rehabilitative care, long-term care, or preventive care;
healthcare expenditure by provider (ICHA-HP) — which classifies units contributing to the provision of healthcare goods and services — such as hospitals, residential facilities, ambulatory health care services, ancillary services or retailers of medical goods.
3.3. Coverage - sector
1. Household individual consumption on health, including the collective consumption with two exceptions:
Occupational health care (intermediate consumption within establishments) minus an estimated share of occupational health in health providers’ and other medical industries net administration;
“Remunerated” unpaid household production in the form of transfer payments (social benefits in cash) for home care of sick, disabled and elderly persons provided by family members.
SHA 2011 Manual recommends following the standard System of National Account (SNA) rules for drawing the production boundary of health care services, albeit with two notable exceptions:
Occupational health care is included in the national totals of health care spending. In SNA, this item is recorded as ancillary services and part of intermediate production of enterprises and
Part of the cash transfers to private households for care givers of home care for the sick and disabled are treated as the paid household production of health care.
2. Health care financing schemes:
HF1 Government schemes and compulsory contributory health care financing schemes;
HF2 -voluntary health care payment schemes;
HF3 - Household out-of-pocket payment;
HF4 - rest of the world financing schemes.
3. NACE rev. 2, section Q, human health and social work activities.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
SHA concept is the consumption of health care goods and services.
Health care statistics describe the process of providing and financing health care in countries by referring to health care goods and services, its providers and financing. For the collection of the data on health care expenditure the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts (ICHA) is used. SHA is a tri-axial system in which the financing, provision and consumption dimensions are covered by the ICHA (International Classification for Health Accounts): Health Care Functions (HC), Health Care Providers (HP), Health Care Financing Schemes (HF).
Data are presented in 3 summary (one-dimensional) tables and 3 cross-classification tables (2-dimensional tables).
Summary tables provide data on:
Current expenditure by provider (ICHA-HP)
Current expenditure by function (ICHA-HC)
Current expenditure by financing scheme (ICHA-HF)
Cross-classification tables refer to:
HC x HP: Health care expenditure by function and provider: data on which type of health care goods and services are supplied by which health care provider;
HC x HF: Health care expenditure by function and by financing scheme: data on how are the different types of services and goods financed;
HP x HF: Health care expenditure by provider and by financing scheme: data on from which health care provider and under which particular financing scheme are the services and goods purchased.
The classifications and definitions presented in the SHA 2011 manual are to be followed. Additional guidelines and material useful for compilers are also available at this address.
3.5. Statistical unit
Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901, and Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359 previously in force, concern the collection of data on "current expenditure on healthcare" which is defined as the "final consumption expenditure of resident units on health care goods and services".
There is a very close relationship between the concept of "final consumption expenditure" as defined in the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and in National Account and, as a consequence, also between the underlying economic transactions as recorded in the two accounting frameworks.
In National Accounts there are two types of statistical units: institutional units and local kind-of-activity units (KAU). A local KAU groups all the parts of an institutional unit in its capacity as producer which are located in a single site. A local KAU belongs to one and only one institutional unit.
SHA uses the same two types of units for data compilation.
Local KAUs operating as providers of healthcare goods and services to resident units are statistical units in SHA.
Also transactions by institutional units are recorded in SHA, in which framework institutional units are also referred to as "financing agents". More precisely, SHA financing agents are institutional units that manage one or more financing schemes. The transactions are executed by the financing agents, according to the rules of the financing schemes.
Financing agents serve as key statistical units in producing national health accounts. While financing schemes are the key units for analysing how the consumption of health care goods and services is financed, the data concerning the relevant transactions are collected either from the financing agents that operate the different financing schemes or from the providers.
The concept of "healthcare financing schemes" in SHA is an application and extension of the concept of "social protection schemes" defined by the European System of Social PROtection Statistics (ESSPROS): "a distinct body of rules, supported by one or more institutional units, governing the provision of social protection benefits and their financing ...". The social protection scheme is the statistical unit in ESSPROS. It is an analytical unit that allows describing the complete structure of the social protection financing system: expenditure and receipts.
According to SHA Manual 2011, "the key concepts for describing the structure of the health care financing system are based on measuring: (a) the expenditure of health care financing schemes, under which goods and services are purchased directly from health care providers, on the one hand, and (b) the types of revenues of health care financing schemes, on the other hand.
Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901 and (prior Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359) limits its scope to the collection of data on the expenditure of health care financing schemes.
3.6. Statistical population
SHA focuses on the consumption of health care goods and services by the resident population irrespective of where this takes place. This implies the inclusion of imports (from non-resident providers) and the exclusion of exports (health care goods and services provided to non-residents).
3.7. Reference area
Data refer to the health care system in the whole teritory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both entities (Federation of BiH and Republica Srpska), as well as Brcko distric are coverd.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data for BiH are available for the period 2013 - 2022
3.9. Base period
Not aplicable
Current expenditure data are presented according to following units:
expenditure amount in millions of euro
expenditure amount in millions of national currency
expenditure amount in millions of PPS
percentage of GDP
amount in euro per capita
amount in national currency per capita
amount in PPS per capita
percentage of current health expenditure (CHE)
Health care expenditure data are annual data, corresponding to the calendar year.
This quality report covers the reference years 2013 - 2022
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Countries submit data to Eurostat on the basis of Commission Regulations (EU):
2015/359 of 4 March 2015 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on healthcare expenditure and financing, until the reference year 2020.
2021/1901 of 29 October 2021 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on health care expenditure and financing, for which the first reference year will be in 2021.
The implementing Regulations specify the areas and the level of aggregation to be submitted by EU Member States and EEA countries (see Annex II of the Regulation).
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Data collection takes place in agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The Health Expenditure Accounts uses only aggregated data or data without direct personal reference. In addition, it is about a macroeconomic consideration. The results are not personally identifiable and in their presentation are related only to the total population. Since only aggregated data or statistics without direct personal reference are used and since this is a macroeconomic consideration, no additional confidentiality procedures are applied.
8.1. Release calendar
The National Health Accounts release is published each year, at the beginning of July.
The latest Plan of Activity of the Agency for Statistics of BiH, including the calendar of publication is in the following website: PLAN_RADA_BHAS_2023_BS.
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
A time series of the main indicators are available on the following link: Calendar.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not aplicable
10.6. Documentation on methodology
The methodological notes are available within the release.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Agency for statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina is committed to quality assurance in the production of official statistics based on the Article 19, Paragraph (1) “Law of Statistics BIH, Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina 26/04; 42/04”. In order to ensure the quality of statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina BHAS developed a document
Quality Management Policy as an element of the system of quality management generally is related to following components: product quality of process as well as other elements of system for quality management, such as planning and controls.
To assure the quality of processes and products, Agency for statistics is in implementation of Quality management model (TQM) done using CAF tool. The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is a total quality management tool developed by the public sector for the public sector, inspired by the Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). Process of self-assessment identifies and monitors all organization results, provides feedback on organizational capacity and results of policy and planning processes. Scoring tool for self-assessment has 9 key indicators and 28 criteria based on which it is possible to measure management level achieved and determine which are the critical points for improvements in future. It looks at the organization from different angles at the same time: the holistic approach to organization performance analysis. BHAS use „The CAF guidelines for implementation“ and 10-step implementation plan therefore developed to help organizations to use it in the most efficient and effective way. Process of self-assessment identifies and monitors all-important organizational results and provides feedback on organizational capacities and results of policy and planning processes. This model of quality monitoring requires development of standardized questionnaire that includes all principles in model.
11.1. Quality assurance
Authorities responsible for SHA data collection work to ensure that the statistical practices used to compile national health accounts are in compliance with SHA methodological requirements and that good practices in the field are being followed, according to the methodology underlined in the SHA 2011 Manual and European Statistics Code of Practice respecting professional independence of the statistical authorities. Procedures are in place to plan and monitor the quality of the health care expenditure statistical production process.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Agency for statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina is committed to quality assurance in the production of official statistics based on the Article 19, Paragraph (1) “Law of Statistics BIH, Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina 26/04; 42/04”. In order to ensure the quality of statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina BHAS developed a document
Quality Management Policy as an element of the system of quality management generally is related to following components: product quality of process as well as other elements of system for quality management, such as planning and controls.
To assure the quality of processes and products, Agency for statistics is in implementation of Quality management model (TQM) done using CAF tool. The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is a total quality management tool developed by the public sector for the public sector, inspired by the Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). Process of self-assessment identifies and monitors all organization results, provides feedback on organizational capacity and results of policy and planning processes. Scoring tool for self-assessment has 9 key indicators and 28 criteria based on which it is possible to measure management level achieved and determine which are the critical points for improvements in future. It looks at the organization from different angles at the same time: the holistic approach to organization performance analysis. BHAS use „The CAF guidelines for implementation“ and 10-step implementation plan therefore developed to help organizations to use it in the most efficient and effective way. Process of self-assessment identifies and monitors all-important organizational results and provides feedback on organizational capacities and results of policy and planning processes. This model of quality monitoring requires development of standardized questionnaire that includes all principles in model.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users of health care expenditure data are policy makers, research institutes, media, and students.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
One of the key elements in securing the quality of statistical data is monitoring user’s satisfaction. The results of User Satisfaction Survey are available on this website.
There is no specific user satisfaction survey for this survey.
12.3. Completeness
Full completeness
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The sources to compile the data on health care expenditure are mainly administrative and register-based data, only a small percentage of the figures come from surveys or other means. Accordingly, for the health care expenditure data collection, accuracy deals with problems of coverage as the main possible source of errors.
13.2. Sampling error
No sampling errors.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Member States were required to transmit their data to Eurostat in compliance with the Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359 transmission deadlines, until reference year 2020. As of reference year 2021, data are transmitted pursuant to Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901. Data and reference metadata for the reference year T should be transmitted to Eurostat by 30 April T+2.
14.2. Punctuality
Data are sent on time each year.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
In the item HC.1.4 x HP.3.4 there was a big decrease in 2019 in comparison with 2018 because in 2019, some cantonal health insurance funds of Federation BiH implemented an Instruction on Standards and Normative of Health Care which stipulates an increase in number of nurses in the medical team of family medicine. For that reason, in 2019 more people were registered under medical teams of family medicine which, on the other hand, significantly decreased a number of insured people registered under a home-based curative care. A reallocation of funds paid by health insurance funds has been made accordingly.Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The NHA are coherent with ESSPROS health insurance scheme.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Atypical entry: HC 1.3.3 x HP 6 - Republica Srpska has specialistic ambulances - counceling for proper nutrition, where patients come with a referral from a family doctor and perform relevant laboratory tests in order to determin an specific diet (medical nutrition therapy).
Approximately. 10 people are working on the compilation of NHA in BiH (methodologists from statistical offices, health insurance funds and ministries of health).
The annual cost of salaries of methodologists working on compilation of NHA is approximatelly 120.000 KM (BAM), taking into account the FTE (5 FTE).
17.1. Data revision - policy
NHA data were subjected to several revisions, due to the improvements in usage of existing data sources, as well as a result of further harmonization with the SHA methodology. There is no specific country policy on data revision.
17.2. Data revision - practice
There were no major revisions in NHA data in the period 2013 - 2022
18.1. Source data
Source name
Brief description of source (e.g. coverage, reference year, etc)
Type of data source
Primary SHA variable(s) using this data source
Health Insurance Fund of Federation BiH, Republica Srpska and Brcko district
Annual Budget reports
Financial reports
HF.1.2/1.3 (financing HC.1. HC.2. HC.3 HC.4)
Ministries of Health of Federation BiH, Republica Srpska and Cantonal ministries
Annual Budget reports
Financial reports
HF.1.1 (financing mainly HC.3, and partially all other HC)
Institutes for Public Health of Federation BiH, Republica Srpska and 10 Cantonal institutes
Financial reports
HF1.1. (financing HC.6)
Agency for Statistics of BiH, Federal Institute for Statistics and Institute for Statistics of Republica Srpska
Household OOP expenditure. The agregate is provided by National Accounts data from the Agency for Statistics of BiH, Federal Statistical Office and Statistical office of Republica Srpska, while the breakdown is estimated in combination with detailed Household Budget Survey (HBS) data.
Surveys/censuses
HF.3.1 (financing HC.1. HC.2. HC.4)
Agency for Statistics of BiH, Federal Institute for Statistics and Institute for Statistics of Republica Srpska
Aggregated data on import and export statistics of drugs are provided by BHAS data as well as data provided by the Agency for drugs and medical devices of BiH. The estimation of expense is made in combination with Household Budget Survey (HBS) data and it is compared with retail sale statistical data.
Public administrative records
HF.3.1 (financing HC.5)
Ministriy of Finance and Treasury of BiH
Public Investment Managament Information System - database on donations for BiH in the sector of health
Other
HF.1.1 (financing HC.6.1 and HC.7.1/HP.7.9)
Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH
Donations for Corona tests, respirators and medicaments provided to the Government of BiH.
Public administrative records
HF 1.1 x HC 5.1.3
Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH
Expenditures for the Health sector within the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH
Public administrative records
HF.1.1 (financing HC.7.1)
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected through the joint health accounts questionnaire (JHAQ) that is submitted to Eurostat during the annual data collection exercise. There is a voluntary deadline to send the JHAQ questionnaire for the calendar year T by the 31st of March T+2. The joint health accounts questionnaire (JHAQ) is coordinated in agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These three international organisations are known collectively as the International Health Accounts Team (IHAT). Data are submitted to Eurostat based on Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359 of 4 March 2015 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on healthcare expenditure and financing, until reference year 2020. As of reference year 2021 onwards Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901 of 29 October 2021 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008, is in force.
18.4. Data validation
The 2023 JHAQ includes a number of features which allow national data correspondents to perform various quality checks before submitting the data. The embedded programmes allow the verification of:
1- Consistency of the data between tables, This step checks if the marginal totals reported in each table of the JHAQ are consistent across all tables. For example, for each function (HC), the total across all financing schemes (HF) in the HCxHF table has to be equal to the total across all providers (HP) in the HCxHP table, i.e. the values in the column “All HF” in the HCxHF table have to be equal to the values in the column “All HP” in the HCxHP table. Any detected differences are flagged up in the corresponding row or column in the relevant tables and all inconsistencies are listed in the “Report” worksheet by variable code together with the amount by which the respective variable differs between the two compared tables. A positive value indicates that the first listed table has a higher value for the same variable, and vice versa.
2- Consistency of the data within tables, Any detected inconsistencies are listed by variable code together with an indication of which total is not equal to the sum of its subcomponents as well as the numerical difference. A positive figure indicates that the total is greater than the reported sub-components, and vice versa.
The presence of negative values,
Entries in the tables cannot be negative as they refer to the consumption of goods and services. If an individual data table is checked for internal consistency, the negative values check is performed for the relevant table and then any negative values are highlighted red and crossed out.
The presence of atypical entries,
The atypical entries check provides information whether the data tables contain values in cells which are – if at all – only reported by very few countries and are thus atypical for health accounting. If an individual data table is checked for internal consistency, the atypical entries check is performed for the relevant table. In the data tables, any cell containing an atypical entry will be highlighted for national data providers. Should any atypical entries be identified, compilers should scrutinize in detail the transactions that led to entries in those cells and assess whether the accounting rules of SHA have been correctly applied. If they come to the conclusion that the transactions are recorded in the correct categories of the ICHA classifications, then the corresponding atypical entries represent unique – and correctly accounted for – features of the country’s health system. In this case a short description of the nature of the transactions should be included in the accompanying Metadata file under “II.3. Atypical entries”. If, on the other hand, compilers come to the conclusion that the transactions are not recorded correctly, then they need to make adjustments in the concerned tables. In case the transactions recorded in a cell do not belong to the boundaries of SHA (e.g. they refer to intermediate consumption) the value of the respective cell should be deleted (and all cells that are affected by this change adjusted accordingly). In case the transactions are misreported and another category of the ICHA classification is more appropriate, the value of the cell should be transferred to the correct cell of the table.
3- The growth rates against the previous year and the magnitude of revisions as compared to previously submitted data. Results are grouped into three different categories:
Breaks in series (the current questionnaire shows no data for an item that is not null in the other file)
Newly reported (the current questionnaire contains data for an item that is empty in the other file)
Differences (all other types of differences)
18.5. Data compilation
SHA variable(s)
Main method
Brief description of methodology
Federation BiH
HF.3.1 x (HC.1, HC.2, HC.4)
Interpolation/Extrapolation
Total revenue of aggregate figure of total OOP payments are calculated based on Household Budget Survey (COICOP) and macroeconomic indicators, and use additional sources (HBS) to reallocate this aggregate to subcategories. HBS data are obtained every 3 year since 2004 to 2015. The split on subagregate level is done via expert estimation based on distribution key of health expenditures data in HBS. Due to the lack of HBS data since 2015, total revenue of OTC for the period 2016-2021 is extrapolated on the basis of the data in 2015.
HF3.1 x HC.5.1.2
Balancing item/Residual method
Data on Over-the-counter medicines (HC.5.1.2) are estimated based on BHAS (Agency for Statistics of BiH) data on import and export statistics of drugs, domestic production statistics (PRODCOM) and administrative data from Health Insurance Fund of Federation BiH, to which they are applied distribution keys for share in hospital/outpatient expenditures, calculated margin in retail in health care.
HF3.1 x HC.5.2
Interpolation/Extrapolation
Data on Therapeutic appliances and other medical durable goods (HC.5.2) were estimated on the basis of administrative data on Institute of Public Health, the average cost of health care services and HBS data on health care expenditures (average expenditures calculated from HBS in period from 2004-2016). Due to the lack of HBS data since 2015, data on HC.5.2 are extrapolated on the basis of the data in 2015.
HF.2.1 x (HC.1, HC.2, HC.7)
Balancing item/Residual method
Total amount of Voluntary health insurance schemes (HF.2.1) are calculated on the basis of administrative data on premium and paid claims from Agency for Supervision of Insurance, to which they are applied distribution key .
Republica Srpska
HF.3 x (HC.1, HC.2, HC.4)
Interpolation/Extrapolation
The estimation for the expenditure for items HC.1. HC.2. HC.4 was perfomred on the basis of household expenditure (HBS). For all subsequent years the calculation is made by the extrapolation method, using indicators obtained on the basis of data from health institution`s Financial reports. Realocation of aggregates on subcategories is made by the structure of expenditures in HBS. The method of extrapolation has been used for every subsequent year.
HF3 x HC.5.1.2
Balancing item/Residual method
For the calculation of this item (HC.5.1.2) a special statistical survey for pharmacies was used, on basis of which data on prescription medicaments and direct payment for medicament are collected. Collected data are compared with data from pharmacie`s Financial reports. When data are compiled, data from Health insurance fund of RS, data from export end import of medicaments and from industrial production of medicaments (PRODCOM) are also taken into account.
HF3 x HC.5.2
Balancing item/Residual method
For the calculation of this item (HC.5.2) statistical reports of companies whose activity is production of orthopedic appliances and trades of orthopedic appliance,as well as a report from health insurance fund of RS are used.
HF.2.1 x (HC.1, HC.2, HC.7)
Balancing item/Residual method
Total HF.2.1 - voluntary health insurance, is calculated on the basis of the Agency for insurance of RS administrative data on pemiums and paid damages.
18.6. Adjustment
No adjustment.
No comments.
Health care expenditure quantifies the economic resources dedicated to health functions, excluding capital investment. Healthcare expenditure concerns itself primarily with healthcare goods and services that are consumed by resident units, irrespective of where that consumption takes place (it may be in the rest of the world) or who is paying for it. As such, exports of healthcare goods and services (to non-resident units) are excluded, whereas imports of healthcare goods and services for final use are included. Health care expenditure data provide information on expenditure in the functionally defined area of health distinct by provider category (e.g. hospitals, general practitioners), function category (e.g. services of curative care, rehabilitative care, clinical laboratory, patient transport, prescribed medicines) and financing scheme (e.g. social security, private insurance company, household). For the collection of the data on health care expenditure the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts (ICHA) is used. SHA sets out an integrated system of comprehensive and internationally comparable accounts and provides a uniform framework of basic accounting rules and a set of standard tables for reporting health expenditure data. The System of Health Accounts - SHA 2011 is a statistical reference manual giving a comprehensive description of the financial flows in health care.
It provides a set of revised classifications of health care functions, providers of health care goods and services and financing schemes. The SHA is currently used as a basis for a joint data collection by OECD, Eurostat and WHO on health care expenditure. The manual sets out in more detail the boundaries, the definitions and the concepts of health accounting – responding to health care systems around the globe with very different organisational and financing arrangements.
Accounting period: Health expenditure and financing data pertain to the calendar year (1 January to 31 December).
25 July 2024
SHA concept is the consumption of health care goods and services.
Health care statistics describe the process of providing and financing health care in countries by referring to health care goods and services, its providers and financing. For the collection of the data on health care expenditure the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts (ICHA) is used. SHA is a tri-axial system in which the financing, provision and consumption dimensions are covered by the ICHA (International Classification for Health Accounts): Health Care Functions (HC), Health Care Providers (HP), Health Care Financing Schemes (HF).
Data are presented in 3 summary (one-dimensional) tables and 3 cross-classification tables (2-dimensional tables).
Summary tables provide data on:
Current expenditure by provider (ICHA-HP)
Current expenditure by function (ICHA-HC)
Current expenditure by financing scheme (ICHA-HF)
Cross-classification tables refer to:
HC x HP: Health care expenditure by function and provider: data on which type of health care goods and services are supplied by which health care provider;
HC x HF: Health care expenditure by function and by financing scheme: data on how are the different types of services and goods financed;
HP x HF: Health care expenditure by provider and by financing scheme: data on from which health care provider and under which particular financing scheme are the services and goods purchased.
The classifications and definitions presented in the SHA 2011 manual are to be followed. Additional guidelines and material useful for compilers are also available at this address.
Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901, and Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359 previously in force, concern the collection of data on "current expenditure on healthcare" which is defined as the "final consumption expenditure of resident units on health care goods and services".
There is a very close relationship between the concept of "final consumption expenditure" as defined in the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and in National Account and, as a consequence, also between the underlying economic transactions as recorded in the two accounting frameworks.
In National Accounts there are two types of statistical units: institutional units and local kind-of-activity units (KAU). A local KAU groups all the parts of an institutional unit in its capacity as producer which are located in a single site. A local KAU belongs to one and only one institutional unit.
SHA uses the same two types of units for data compilation.
Local KAUs operating as providers of healthcare goods and services to resident units are statistical units in SHA.
Also transactions by institutional units are recorded in SHA, in which framework institutional units are also referred to as "financing agents". More precisely, SHA financing agents are institutional units that manage one or more financing schemes. The transactions are executed by the financing agents, according to the rules of the financing schemes.
Financing agents serve as key statistical units in producing national health accounts. While financing schemes are the key units for analysing how the consumption of health care goods and services is financed, the data concerning the relevant transactions are collected either from the financing agents that operate the different financing schemes or from the providers.
The concept of "healthcare financing schemes" in SHA is an application and extension of the concept of "social protection schemes" defined by the European System of Social PROtection Statistics (ESSPROS): "a distinct body of rules, supported by one or more institutional units, governing the provision of social protection benefits and their financing ...". The social protection scheme is the statistical unit in ESSPROS. It is an analytical unit that allows describing the complete structure of the social protection financing system: expenditure and receipts.
According to SHA Manual 2011, "the key concepts for describing the structure of the health care financing system are based on measuring: (a) the expenditure of health care financing schemes, under which goods and services are purchased directly from health care providers, on the one hand, and (b) the types of revenues of health care financing schemes, on the other hand.
Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901 and (prior Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359) limits its scope to the collection of data on the expenditure of health care financing schemes.
SHA focuses on the consumption of health care goods and services by the resident population irrespective of where this takes place. This implies the inclusion of imports (from non-resident providers) and the exclusion of exports (health care goods and services provided to non-residents).
Data refer to the health care system in the whole teritory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both entities (Federation of BiH and Republica Srpska), as well as Brcko distric are coverd.
Health care expenditure data are annual data, corresponding to the calendar year.
This quality report covers the reference years 2013 - 2022
The sources to compile the data on health care expenditure are mainly administrative and register-based data, only a small percentage of the figures come from surveys or other means. Accordingly, for the health care expenditure data collection, accuracy deals with problems of coverage as the main possible source of errors.
Current expenditure data are presented according to following units:
expenditure amount in millions of euro
expenditure amount in millions of national currency
expenditure amount in millions of PPS
percentage of GDP
amount in euro per capita
amount in national currency per capita
amount in PPS per capita
percentage of current health expenditure (CHE)
SHA variable(s)
Main method
Brief description of methodology
Federation BiH
HF.3.1 x (HC.1, HC.2, HC.4)
Interpolation/Extrapolation
Total revenue of aggregate figure of total OOP payments are calculated based on Household Budget Survey (COICOP) and macroeconomic indicators, and use additional sources (HBS) to reallocate this aggregate to subcategories. HBS data are obtained every 3 year since 2004 to 2015. The split on subagregate level is done via expert estimation based on distribution key of health expenditures data in HBS. Due to the lack of HBS data since 2015, total revenue of OTC for the period 2016-2021 is extrapolated on the basis of the data in 2015.
HF3.1 x HC.5.1.2
Balancing item/Residual method
Data on Over-the-counter medicines (HC.5.1.2) are estimated based on BHAS (Agency for Statistics of BiH) data on import and export statistics of drugs, domestic production statistics (PRODCOM) and administrative data from Health Insurance Fund of Federation BiH, to which they are applied distribution keys for share in hospital/outpatient expenditures, calculated margin in retail in health care.
HF3.1 x HC.5.2
Interpolation/Extrapolation
Data on Therapeutic appliances and other medical durable goods (HC.5.2) were estimated on the basis of administrative data on Institute of Public Health, the average cost of health care services and HBS data on health care expenditures (average expenditures calculated from HBS in period from 2004-2016). Due to the lack of HBS data since 2015, data on HC.5.2 are extrapolated on the basis of the data in 2015.
HF.2.1 x (HC.1, HC.2, HC.7)
Balancing item/Residual method
Total amount of Voluntary health insurance schemes (HF.2.1) are calculated on the basis of administrative data on premium and paid claims from Agency for Supervision of Insurance, to which they are applied distribution key .
Republica Srpska
HF.3 x (HC.1, HC.2, HC.4)
Interpolation/Extrapolation
The estimation for the expenditure for items HC.1. HC.2. HC.4 was perfomred on the basis of household expenditure (HBS). For all subsequent years the calculation is made by the extrapolation method, using indicators obtained on the basis of data from health institution`s Financial reports. Realocation of aggregates on subcategories is made by the structure of expenditures in HBS. The method of extrapolation has been used for every subsequent year.
HF3 x HC.5.1.2
Balancing item/Residual method
For the calculation of this item (HC.5.1.2) a special statistical survey for pharmacies was used, on basis of which data on prescription medicaments and direct payment for medicament are collected. Collected data are compared with data from pharmacie`s Financial reports. When data are compiled, data from Health insurance fund of RS, data from export end import of medicaments and from industrial production of medicaments (PRODCOM) are also taken into account.
HF3 x HC.5.2
Balancing item/Residual method
For the calculation of this item (HC.5.2) statistical reports of companies whose activity is production of orthopedic appliances and trades of orthopedic appliance,as well as a report from health insurance fund of RS are used.
HF.2.1 x (HC.1, HC.2, HC.7)
Balancing item/Residual method
Total HF.2.1 - voluntary health insurance, is calculated on the basis of the Agency for insurance of RS administrative data on pemiums and paid damages.
Source name
Brief description of source (e.g. coverage, reference year, etc)
Type of data source
Primary SHA variable(s) using this data source
Health Insurance Fund of Federation BiH, Republica Srpska and Brcko district
Annual Budget reports
Financial reports
HF.1.2/1.3 (financing HC.1. HC.2. HC.3 HC.4)
Ministries of Health of Federation BiH, Republica Srpska and Cantonal ministries
Annual Budget reports
Financial reports
HF.1.1 (financing mainly HC.3, and partially all other HC)
Institutes for Public Health of Federation BiH, Republica Srpska and 10 Cantonal institutes
Financial reports
HF1.1. (financing HC.6)
Agency for Statistics of BiH, Federal Institute for Statistics and Institute for Statistics of Republica Srpska
Household OOP expenditure. The agregate is provided by National Accounts data from the Agency for Statistics of BiH, Federal Statistical Office and Statistical office of Republica Srpska, while the breakdown is estimated in combination with detailed Household Budget Survey (HBS) data.
Surveys/censuses
HF.3.1 (financing HC.1. HC.2. HC.4)
Agency for Statistics of BiH, Federal Institute for Statistics and Institute for Statistics of Republica Srpska
Aggregated data on import and export statistics of drugs are provided by BHAS data as well as data provided by the Agency for drugs and medical devices of BiH. The estimation of expense is made in combination with Household Budget Survey (HBS) data and it is compared with retail sale statistical data.
Public administrative records
HF.3.1 (financing HC.5)
Ministriy of Finance and Treasury of BiH
Public Investment Managament Information System - database on donations for BiH in the sector of health
Other
HF.1.1 (financing HC.6.1 and HC.7.1/HP.7.9)
Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH
Donations for Corona tests, respirators and medicaments provided to the Government of BiH.
Public administrative records
HF 1.1 x HC 5.1.3
Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH
Expenditures for the Health sector within the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH
Public administrative records
HF.1.1 (financing HC.7.1)
Annual.
Member States were required to transmit their data to Eurostat in compliance with the Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/359 transmission deadlines, until reference year 2020. As of reference year 2021, data are transmitted pursuant to Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1901. Data and reference metadata for the reference year T should be transmitted to Eurostat by 30 April T+2.
Not applicable.
In the item HC.1.4 x HP.3.4 there was a big decrease in 2019 in comparison with 2018 because in 2019, some cantonal health insurance funds of Federation BiH implemented an Instruction on Standards and Normative of Health Care which stipulates an increase in number of nurses in the medical team of family medicine. For that reason, in 2019 more people were registered under medical teams of family medicine which, on the other hand, significantly decreased a number of insured people registered under a home-based curative care. A reallocation of funds paid by health insurance funds has been made accordingly.Not applicable.
