Ministry of Public Health, Lebanon

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health improves the health status of the population by ensuring an equitable accessibility to high-quality health services through fairly-financed universal coverage.

In 2010, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health and IHME began collaborating with American University of Beirut (AUB) to collect and analyze costing information from the Lebanese health system. Under the joint direction of the Ministry of Public Health and AUB, primary data collection has now been completed at a range of facilities. Analyses are under way to examine the cost of different facilities and intervention combinations.

The data are complemented by the collation of other data sources, such as centralized pharmaceutical databases. Analyses will examine the cost of different facilities and intervention combinations. Lebanon is the first of approximately 15 countries in which such studies will be undertaken. The project will serve as a pilot for the other countries in which the expanded Access, Bottlenecks, Costs, and Equity Project is to be implemented with local partners.

Country-specific conclusions will be summarized and submitted for publication. A country-specific report that summarizes the descriptive information learned and procedures undertaken will also be written.

Individual collaborators:

• Walid Ammar
• Georges Saade