MINNESOTA TAKES CONTROVERSIAL STEPS TO REFORM HEALTH CARE

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-560
Author(s):  
J. F. L.
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Reform ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
The State ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Practice Parameters ◽  
The Law ◽  
Health Legislation ◽  
Care Costs

When Minnesota legislators last spring passed health legislation that included a tax on health care providers, many physicians thought the state had gone too far. As the state begins to implement the law, however (physicians will begin paying the tax in 1994), those same physicians are realizing that their troubles may have just begun. The tax is only one part of a larger health reform package that promises to change the way Minnesota physicians practice. Under the law, for example, the state will assign physicians to some patients. The law also requires the state to develop practice parameters and controls on technology... Beginning in 1994, physicians will pay a 2% income tax on their gross revenues. The tax, which will not be levied on Medicare or Medicaid services or on physicians employed by managed care providers, will help pay for health insurance for the state's approximately 400,000 uninsured. Many physicians opposed the legislation because it will cut into their pay... And to achieve its goal of reducing health care costs by 10% a year for five years, the state will develop and implement practice parameters in an attempt to avoid ineffective treatment.

Life Themes: A Method to Understand Terminal Illness

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Messer Zlatin
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Costs ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Incurable Cancer ◽  
Doctor Patient Communication ◽  
The Patient’S View ◽  
Care Costs

As health care costs in general soar, the high cost of terminal care is questioned. Yet little is known about what kinds of medical care terminally ill persons, themselves, want. To explore the patient's view, I conducted a qualitative study of eight patients with incurable cancer to answer the question, “How do terminally ill persons understand their illnesses and treatments?” Analysis of interview transcripts indicated that study participants created illness-understandings within the context of their daily life experiences via life themes. Since life themes integrate and give meaning to illness events in both emic and etic ways and help to explain patients' coping strategies, it is recommended that health care providers elicit patients' life themes and use them in their approaches to diagnosis and treatment. The possible benefits of the life theme method are more balanced doctor/patient communication, improved patient satisfaction and quality of life, and the containment of health care costs.

User Fees for Health Care: Why a Bad Idea Keeps Coming Back (Or, What's Health Got to Do With It?)

1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert G. Evans ◽  
Morris L. Barer ◽  
Greg L. Stoddart
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Health Care Costs ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
User Fees ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Face ◽  
Care Costs

ABSTRACTCalls for user fees in Canadian health care go back as far as the debate leading up to the establishment of Canada's national hospital insurance program in the late 1950s. Although the rationales have shifted around somewhat, some of the more consistent claims have been that user fees are necessary as a source of additional revenue for a badly underfunded system, that they are necessary to control runaway health care costs, and that they will deter unnecessary use (read abuse) of the system. But the real reasons that user fees have been such hardy survivors of the health policy wars, bear little relation to the claims commonly made for them. Their introduction in the financing of hospital or medical care in Canada would be to the benefit of a number of groups, and not just those one usually thinks of. We show that those who are healthy, and wealthy, would join health care providers (and possibly insurers) as net beneficiaries of a reintroduction of user fees for hospital and medical care in Canada. The flip side of this is that those who are indigent and ill will bear the brunt of the redistribution (for that is really what user fees are all about), and seniors feature prominently in those latter groups. Claims of other positive effects of user fees, such as reducing total health care costs, or improving appropriateness or accessibility, simply do not stand up in the face of the available evidence. In the final analysis, therefore, whether one is for or against user fees reduces to whether one is for or against the resulting income redistribution.

CALPERS TELLS 18 HEALTH-CARE PROVIDERS IT EXPECTS A 5% ROLLBACK IN PREMIUMS

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. A50-A50
Author(s):  
J. F. L.
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Invasive Procedures ◽  
Retirement System ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Care Costs

In it most aggressive swipe at health-care costs to date, the huge California Public Employees' Retirement System served notice that it expects health-care providers to agree to a 5% rollback in health-care premiums for 900,000 public employee families ... Calpers, which manages one of the country's largest groups of insured individuals and is often cited as a model of health-care reform, told 18 managed-care companies that it expects the 5% rollback to be effective in the 1994-95 contract year, which begins August 1 ... Providers expressed surprise and muted alarm at the depth of the cutback proposed ... The 5% target was based on numerous studies, not only of individual HMO fiscal data, but also on Rand Corp. studies showing the persistence of waste and overutilization in health care which documented excessive Caesarean deliveries, overuse of magnetic resonance imaging scans, overprescribing of drugs, and performance of unnecessary surgery when less invasive procedures would suffice.

Article Commentary: Penalties for health care fraud and abuse: January 2007-March 2008

2009 ◽  
Vol 140 (5) ◽  
pp. 625-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Udayan K. Shah ◽  
Douglas R. Johnston ◽  
Gina Maisto Smith ◽  
Barbara E. Ziv ◽  
James S. Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Medical Equipment ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
The State ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Health Care Fraud ◽  
Pharmaceutical Firms

This commentary details the providers, penalties, and affected regions resulting from US health care fraud and abuse prosecutions from January 2007 to March 2008. Database review found that over $3 billion in fines as well as incarceration in some cases were ordered for 21 convicted providers, 68 percent of whom were physicians, and to 41 nonproviders, most of whom were vendors of durable medical goods (36%), individual citizens (18%) and health care corporations (17%). Fewer claims were found against pharmaceutical firms (7%) and medical equipment manufacturers (4%). Most verdicts were in the state of Florida. False claims accounted for most of the violations for both providers and nonproviders. These severe repercussions of malfeasance should promote careful consideration and construction of the terms of engagement between health care providers, corporations, and payers.

The State of Genomic Health Care and Cancer Are We Going Two Steps Forward and One Step Backward?

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen E. Greco ◽  
Suzanne M. Mahon
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Genetic Testing ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
The State ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Genomic Information ◽  
Genetic Tests ◽  
Common Diseases ◽  
One Step

As the application of genomic information and technology crosses the horizon of health care into our everyday lives, expanding genomic knowledge continues to affect how health care services are defined and delivered. Genomic discoveries have led to enhanced clinical capabilities to predict susceptibility to common diseases and conditions such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Hundreds of genetic tests are now available that can identify individuals who carry one or more gene mutations that increase their risk of developing cancer or other common diseases. Increased availability and directto-consumer marketing of genetic testing is moving genetic testing away from trained genetics health professionals and into the hands of primary care providers and consumers. Genetic tests available on the Internet are being directly marketed to individuals, who can order these tests and receive a report of their risk for numerous health conditions and diseases. Health care providers are expected to interpret these test results, evaluate their accuracy, address the psychosocial consequences of those distressed by receiving their results, and translate genomic information into effective care. However, as we move two steps forward, we are also moving one step backward because many health care providers are unprepared for this genomic revolution. A number of international education, practice, and policy efforts are underway to address the challenges health care providers face in providing competent genomic health care in the context of unprecedented access to information, technology, and global communication. Efforts to integrate standard of care guidelines into electronic medical records increases health care providers' access to information for individuals at risk for or diagnosed with a genomic condition. Development of genomic competencies for health care providers has led to increased genomic content in academic programs. These and other efforts will keep the state of genomic health care stepping forward as we face the challenges of health care in the genomic era.

scholarly journals A PERSPECTIVE OF PRIVATE HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS IN THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH ON ADOPTING KEY STRATEGIES OF INDIA HYPERTENSION CONTROL INITIATIVE

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. e385-e386
Author(s):  
Ashish Krishna ◽  
Anupam Khungar Pathni ◽  
Bhawna Sharma ◽  
Roopa Shivashankar ◽  
Suyesh Shrivastava ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
The State ◽  
Madhya Pradesh ◽  
Private Health Care ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Hypertension Control ◽  
Control Initiative
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