Our respondents identified 23 elements of fair priority setting. Most of these (17) were well aligned with the four conditions of Accountability for Reasonableness; six were not. Comparisons across health care system and levels of decision making revealed that four elements (transparency, participatory and among the criteria—need based and objective) were common to all and the rest were common to only the health care systems (but not at all levels), or only the levels of decision making (but not to all health are systems). Perceptions varied remarkably across levels of decision making.
The overlap between the elements of fairness found in this study and the conditions of Accountability for Reasonableness demonstrates that the four conditions are recognizable and applicable across health care systems and levels of decision making. However, the framework should be used with flexibility to allow for identification of elements and relevant explicit criteria (such as those identified in this study) – that may not directly fit under any of the four conditions.