Acknowledgements:
The authors would like to thank Nils Janlöv and Åsa Ljungvall from the Swedish Agency for Health and Care Services Analysis and Anders Anell from Lund University School of Economics and Management and the Swedish Agency for Health and Care Services Analysis for their contribution to the Swedish case study. The authors would also like to thank Henning Øien from the Department of Health Management and Health Economics at the University of Oslo for his contribution to the Norwegian case study, and Naoki Ikegami from Keio University in Tokyo for his contribution to the Japanese case study.