Health accounting data that show economic and financial resource flows within a health system are critical to informing health and economic policy – at both national and international levels. However, countries vary widely in their health accounting histories as well as the demand for and capacity to produce these data.

A new brief, System of Health Accounts and Health Satellite Accounts, introduces two prominent health accounting approaches – the System of Health Accounts (SHA), developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Eurostat, and the World Health Organization, and the Health Satellite Accounts (HSA) developed by the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Americas. Written for non-technical policymakers and other stakeholders, this brief compares the SHA and HSA approaches to health accounting in terms of their objectives and content, standardization and scope, and data requirements, and highlights the implications of this comparison for low- and middle-income countries.