B.7. Education and health services
14.363. For the compilation of data on resident/non-resident transactions in education or health services, additional sources of information from administrative sources (e.g., the ministry of education or health), specialized entities or other third party sources may be necessary, or other types of sources. In particular, on the receipts side, relevant ministries usually gather such information (i.e., for mode 2, but also other modes) or would have an interest in doing so. Another option is to collect data from all higher education institutions and universities operating in the country with the aim of collecting data on foreign students studying in the compiling economy. Additional questions relevant to mode 2 could be added to the survey questionnaires. Data from health insurance companies could be used and combined with administrative sources and information from travel surveys for further analysis of health services.
14.364. Embassies and consulates may also hold information for both exports and imports of such services. For health services, it is advised that compilers use administrative data from health and social insurance programs. Other breakdowns could also be encouraged for sectors of particular interest to an economy; e.g., cultural services or leisure.[1]
14.365. Given the increasing demand for information on health-related or cultural services, for example, and the complexity of some existing questionnaires, other methods could be envisaged to compile more details on such services, such as combining household surveys with administrative data, or health insurance and credit card data expenditures to health care providers, as that information could be extracted by the appropriate merchant code categories.[2]
14.366. Some information on health services could be derived from the travel purpose variables used for education-related travel by including a breakdown for study and courses and medical treatment. Additional information could be derived from linking the aforementioned sources with administrative data, such as VAT data (from the national tax and customs administration).
Next: B.8. Government goods and services n.i.e.
[1] For example, given the interest of Australia in the exports of education services, the Australian Bureau of Statistics compiles a breakdown of education travel data by type of expenditure (i.e., education fees and other expenditures) and type of institution.
[2] For example, Austria derives information on health-related services that residents consume in Hungary as a neighbouring country from a household survey, together with administrative information from the project Health Region – Regional Network for the Improvement of Healthcare Services, which is run by the European Union. Both relevant information sources are combined to establish sound estimations.