title: A systematic review of community-based health insurance programs in South Asia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Community-based health insurance (CBHI) has been evolving as an effective means of healthcare financing in many countries of South Asia. A systematic review in this context would give a comprehensive report of the performance of these schemes in terms of improving the health-seeking behaviour of the beneficiaries enrolled for the schemes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Important databases like PubMed, Elsevier, SocINDEX (EBSCO), Cochrane Reviews, Medline and Scopus were reviewed along with relevant portals-Google Scholar, www.who.int/, www.worldbank.org and www.cochrane.org-and specific journals and discussion series with published literature in the areas of community health insurance and health microfinance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The review finally chronicles 20 CBHI schemes from published and unpublished literature from the countries comprising South Asia. These schemes have been reviewed in terms of their enrolment process, entry point and the extent to which they have contributed to the healthcare-seeking behaviour.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The CBHI schemes can also serve as an alternative healthcare financing mechanism where fee-for-service and user fees have not made any impact. There have been very few studies that have tried to carry out an impact evaluation of the CBHI schemes on the target population, and more and more such studies can be a scope for further research. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal University, India.
authors.forename: Reshmi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhageerathy
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Manipal University, India.
authors.forename: Sreekumaran
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal University, India.
authors.forename: Unnikrishnan
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bhaskaran
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D007348:Insurance, Health; D015397:Program Evaluation
keywords: South Asia; community-based health insurance; systematic review