Future directions for the national health accounts

Over the past 15 years, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has engaged in ongoing efforts to improve the methodology and data collection processes used to develop the national health accounts (NHA) estimates of national health expenditures (NHE). In March 1998, HCFA initiated a third conference to explore possible improvements or useful extensions to the current NHA projects. This article summarizes the issues discussed at the conference, provides an overview of three commissioned papers on future directions for the NHA that were presented, and summarizes suggestions made by participants regarding future directions for the accounts.