Table 2.

Strategic health purchasing functions.

No.	Purchasing functions	Description
1.	Benefits specification	Specifying covered services and medicines and where they can be accessed. Cost-sharing policies and service delivery standards
2.	Contracting	Selecting public and/or private providers to deliver services in the benefit package and entering into contracts with them, specifying the terms and conditions in the contracts and enforcing the contracts
3.	Provider payment method	Selecting, designing, and implementing provider payment systems and setting payment rates
4.	Performance monitoring and accountability measures	Assessing provider performance, providing feedback for improvement, and carrying out system-level analysis of utilization, quality, and so forth to inform purchasing decisions

Source: SPARC framework on the ideal of strategic health purchasing functions (SPARC 2020).