The UPecon Foundation is the corporate arm of the University of the Philippines School of Economics. It is a non-stock, non-profit organization whose mission is to support the research, training, and community services of the School. The members and officers of UPecon are all School faculty members in good standing. Previous work of the group has included: preparatory studies for the National Health Insurance Act; work on the Local Government Code; studies of public investment programming at the national and local levels; and project analysis (both feasibility study preparation and post-evaluation) covering a wide range of sectors including integrated area development, education, health, infrastructure, poverty alleviation and the environment. Since 2001, the UPecon Foundation has been running three health projects: the Quality Improvement Demonstration Study (funded by the US National Institutes for Health), the Health Policy Development Program (funded by USAID), and the Technical Assistance to the Health Sector Policy Support Programme of the Philippines (funded by the EU). The UPecon team for this project comprises health economists who have wide experiences in providing policy research and advocacy support to the Philippine Department of Health, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, other national government agencies, and donor or bilateral institutions.
Researchers
Joseph J. Capuno (jjcapuno@gmail.com)
Joseph Capuno has more than 10 years of experience working on health policy issues in the Philippines and Vietnam. His main work concentrated on health decentralization concerns, such as local drug financing, revenue mobilization of hospitals and rural health units and social health insurance design and implementation.
Aleli dP. Kraft (aleli.kraft@up.edu.ph)
Aleli Kraft also has more than 10 years of relevant experience. Her most recent works were a survey and analysis of private physicians with TB practices as they respond to information and incentives to adopt TB DOTS, and a review of PhilHealth benefit packages.
Stella Quimbo (stella_quimbo@yahoo.com)
Stella Quimbo is the project coordinator for the Quality Improvement and Demonstration Study, a demonstration project funded by the US National Institutes for Health.
Carlos R. Tan
Carlos Tan, Jr. is an experienced econometrician whose recent work was an estimate of the economic burden of TB in the Philippines.
Selected publications
Kraft, A., Capuno, J. J., Quimbo, S. A. & Tan, C. Jr. 2007. Information, incentives and practice patterns: The case of TB DOTS Services and Private Physicians in the Philippines, Singapore Economic Review (forthcoming).
Capuno, J. J. 2006. Social health insurance for the poor programs of the Philippines and Vietnam, Philippine Journal of Development 33(1&2), pp. 127-156.
Capuno, J. J. & Tan, C. Jr. 2005. A case for public-private partnership in TB control, Public Policy, Vol. IX(2), 2005, pp. 79-105.
Lieberman, S. S., Capuno, J. J. & Van Minh, H. 2005. Decentralizing health: Lessons from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in R. White and P. Smoke (eds.), East Asia Decentralizes: Making Local Government Work, World Bank, 2005, pp. 155-178.
Capuno, J. J. 2001. Policy reform under decentralization: financing of health services in the Philippines, Regional Development Studies, Vol. 7.