Gestão econômica e financeira de consórcios intermunicipais de saúde no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the use of economic and financial management practices used by public health consortiums (CIS) established in Rio Grande do Sul. The CIS are regional and intergovernmental cooperation structures formed between municipalities to work in public health in order mainly at reducing costs and increasing the supply of health services. As entities of the indirect public administration and for his role in public health, are subordinate to the principles of management of public entities and the principles and guidelines of the Brazilian public health system (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS). The public administration from the last century has, globally, suffering reforms that characterize the movement known as New Public Management (NPM). NPM provides a more managerial character to government incorporating typical management practices of private enterprise. Thus, economic and financial management practices are seen as necessary to support the decision-making process to the planning, execution and control of the performance evaluation of programs and actions of public entities according to the constitutional principles, especially given the scarcity of resources and environments high demand as the area of public health. Thus, we developed a quantitative study of applied nature and descriptive in which the perceptions of managers of CIS on the use of these management practices were collected through research tool and treated objectively, using descriptive and exploratory statistics techniques. Thus, the CIS were classified and grouped according to the degree of use of management practices. From this, it was found that the objective of the CIS is not formulate strategies to reduce costs and expand and qualify the offer. The CIS is instance of execution. It is the very operational tool aimed at rationalizing resources in the joint management of outsourced healthcare services. For this reason, it makes little use of economic and financial management practices. And the main concern of CIS management is focused on strict compliance with legal and regulatory obligations to themselves and to the associated municipalities.