Social Impact Bonds: Current Context and Implementation Model in the Healthcare Industry

A social impact bond (SIB) is a form of contract with the public sector or governing authority, whereby it pays for better social outcomes in certain areas and passes on part of the savings achieved to investors. In recent years, SIBs have been launched in the healthcare sector for the purpose of reducing future medical costs and improving the quality of life of patients. For example, a SIB called "Be Active" launched in Birmingham, England, encouraged people to be healthier through exercise, smoking cessation, etc., which raised an amount equivalent to £464 million. From this point of view, the application of SIB to the healthcare field is social innovation. However, in the healthcare sector, the implementation of SIBs has been limited to only 18 projects, which comprise approximately 17% of the total practices, suggesting the existence of outstanding issues that obstruct the realization of its potential. Considering this situation, in the present study, we conducted an intensive review of scholarly reports of SIB cases in the healthcare sector to date to identify the key factors of their successful implementation and the associated issues in accordance with the current flow of medical economic evaluation, followed by a consideration of a socioeconomic system for the SIB with respect to the theories of medical innovation.