Cruz Martínez, Gibrán AlbertoPerna, RobertaMoreno Fuentes, Francisco Javier2024-02-262024-02-262024-02Cruz-Martínez, G., R. Perna y FJ Moreno Fuentes (2024) Inter-regional patient mobility in decentralized Spain: Explaining regional budget imbalances. International Journal of Health Planning and Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.37940749-675310.1002/hpm.3794https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/101742Inter-regional patient mobility represents both a resource and a challenge for the organization and financing of health systems, particularly in decentralised countries. We use cross-sectional time series regression analysis to test the determinants of imbalances in regional funds to finance inter-regional patient mobility for the 17 Spanish regions for the period 2014–2020. The findings indicate that highly specialised health centres and bilateral agreements partly explain the budget imbalance from inter-regional patient referrals, while local tourism partly explains the budget imbalance from non-referred patient mobility. Developing effective national schemes to compensate net patient recipient regions would be fundamental to addressing territorial imbalances.engAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/journal article1099-1751https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hpm.3794open accessBalance of paymentsBilateral agreementsCross-border patient mobilityDecentralizationHealthcareNational health systemEspañaSistema Nacional de SaludPolíticaEconomía pública3212 Salud Publica59 Ciencia Política5309 Organización Industrial y Políticas Gubernamentales