Estimating the budget impact of a Tuberculosis strategic purchasing pilot study in Medan, Indonesia (2018–2019)

Background Indonesia has the world’s second-highest tuberculosis (TB) burden, with 969,000 annual TB infections. In 2017, Indonesia faced significant challenges in TB care, with 18% of cases missed, 29% of diagnosed cases unreported, and 55.4% of positive results not notified. The government is exploring a new approach called “strategic purchasing” to improve TB detection and treatment rates and offer cost-effective service delivery. Objectives We aimed to analyze the financial impact of implementing a TB purchasing pilot in the city of Medan and assess the project’s affordability and value for money. Methods We developed a budget impact model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of using strategic purchasing to improve TB reporting and treatment success rates. We used using data from Medan’s budget impact model and the Ministry of Health’s guidelines to predict the total cost and the cost per patient. Results The model showed that strategic purchasing would improve TB reporting by 63% and successful treatments by 64%. While this would lead to a rise in total spending on TB care by 60%, the cost per patient would decrease by 3%. This is because more care would be provided in primary healthcare settings, which are more cost-effective than hospitals. Conclusions While strategic purchasing may increase overall spending, it could improve TB care in Indonesia by identifying more cases, treating them more effectively, and reducing the cost per patient. This could potentially lead to long-term cost savings and improved health outcomes.