Georgia-HSSP is designed to consolidate and further the gains Georgia has made over the past five years and improve the performance of the system, both in terms of quality and access. Under the new USAID Georgia Health System Strengthening Project, Abt Associates will lead a team of international and local partners to help the Republic of Georgia strengthen insurer capacity to provide quality health insurance services, strengthen provider capacity to manage and deliver quality health services, and strengthen the Government's capacity to guide and monitor health reforms. Since 1995, the Government of Georgia has taken a number of bold steps to improve the way health care is delivered and financed. The most significant shift has been from a centralized, publicly financed and operated health system to a decentralized one with private insurance financing and privately operated facilities. These changes have aimed to improve access, quality and responsiveness to consumers by stimulating competition and efficiency. Today, nearly one million Georgians have private health insurance fully or partially subsidized by the government. Although these changes have brought about positive results, many challenges still remain. Georgia-HSSP is designed to consolidate and further the gains Georgia has made over the past five years and improve the performance of the system, both in terms of quality and access. It is anticipated that the Project will help Georgia's new health care model to successfully use limited public funds to drive large-scale improvements in how the private sector operates, harness competitive energy to strengthen the health system and, ultimately, improve health outcomes. Georgia-HSSP runs from October 2009 through September 2014, building on the achievements of USAID's CoReform Project (2004-09), also led by Abt Associates, in collaboration with CARE International and Curatio International Foundation. The CoReform Project assisted the Georgian government in considering a range of options for health policy and financing reform, building the capacity of the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs (MOLHSA) to implement reforms, and improving reproductive health policy and perinatal care services. The CoReform Project also helped strengthen the nascent private health insurance industry by introducing standard contracts between health insurers and providers; introducing standard medical classification systems to improve reporting, and helping to develop a Health Insurance Mediation Service which provides information on health insurance plans to beneficiaries and mediation services for health insurance disputes. On Georgia-HSSP, Abt Associates is working with several partner organizations: Georgia-HSSP is designed to consolidate and further the gains Georgia has made over the past five years and improve the performance of the system, both in terms of quality and access.

• Banyan Global, an organization with strong experience in building capacity in health financing and health business/financial management in transitional economies, will help build management and technical capacity of primary health care providers, hospital managers, and health insurance companies.

• MD Informatics (MDi), a physician-led medical informatics organization that specializes in creating and strengthening health information systems (including links between clinical and financial information systems), will help Georgia develop information systems that ensure data compatibility between the MOLHSA and private health insurance companies.

• In addition, local organizations, such as the Association of Young Economists of Georgia and the Georgian Insurance Association, will help build capacity of providers and insurers and serve as local resources on health management and health insurance issues.