The Healthcare Imperative
The Healthcare Imperative

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2011-01-17

Total Pages: 852

ISBN-13: 0309144337

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The United States has the highest per capita spending on health care of any industrialized nation but continually lags behind other nations in health care outcomes including life expectancy and infant mortality. National health expenditures are projected to exceed $2.5 trillion in 2009. Given healthcare's direct impact on the economy, there is a critical need to control health care spending. According to The Health Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes, the costs of health care have strained the federal budget, and negatively affected state governments, the private sector and individuals. Healthcare expenditures have restricted the ability of state and local governments to fund other priorities and have contributed to slowing growth in wages and jobs in the private sector. Moreover, the number of uninsured has risen from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008. The Health Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes identifies a number of factors driving expenditure growth including scientific uncertainty, perverse economic and practice incentives, system fragmentation, lack of patient involvement, and under-investment in population health. Experts discussed key levers for catalyzing transformation of the delivery system. A few included streamlined health insurance regulation, administrative simplification and clarification and quality and consistency in treatment. The book is an excellent guide for policymakers at all levels of government, as well as private sector healthcare workers.

The Impacts of the Affordable Care Act on Preparedness Resources and Programs
The Impacts of the Affordable Care Act on Preparedness Resources and Programs

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780309303606

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Many of the elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect in 2014, and with the establishment of many new rules and regulations, there will continue to be significant changes to the United States health care system. It is not clear what impact these changes will have on medical and public health preparedness programs around the country. Although there has been tremendous progress since 2005 and Hurricane Katrina, there is still a long way to go to ensure the health security of the Country. There is a commonly held notion that preparedness is separate and distinct from everyday operations, and that it only affects emergency departments. But time and time again, catastrophic events challenge the entire health care system, from acute care and emergency medical services down to the public health and community clinic level, and the lack of preparedness of one part of the system places preventable stress on other components. The implementation of the ACA provides the opportunity to consider how to incorporate preparedness into all aspects of the health care system. The Impacts of the Affordable Care Act on Preparedness Resources and Programs is the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events in November 2013 to discuss how changes to the health system as a result of the ACA might impact medical and public health preparedness programs across the nation. This report discusses challenges and benefits of the Affordable Care Act to disaster preparedness and response efforts around the country and considers how changes to payment and reimbursement models will present opportunities and challenges to strengthen disaster preparedness and response capacities.

Reforming the Delivery System
Reforming the Delivery System

Author: United States Congress

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-10-03

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 9781977846570

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Reforming the delivery system : the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation : hearing before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, first session, March 20, 2013.

Choked Pipes
Choked Pipes

Author: Sania Nishtar

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780195479690

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Choked Pipes is the first consolidated review of Pakistan's health system, which analyzes impediments and offers a phased implementation roadmap for reform. It outlines the existing configuration of the country's health system, presents a brief overview of the factors responsible for poorhealth status, and outlines weaknesses of 'reform' approaches adopted in the past. By describing the Mixed Health Systems Syndrome, the book has drawn attention to the systemic challenges in an environment where publicly-funded government health delivery coexists with privately-financed marketdelivery. The direction of reform proposed in the book draws attention to a number of structural factors, both within and outside of the healthcare system and lay emphasis on reform of governance and social welfare as an important adjunct to reform within the healthcare system. The reform roadmapis relevant to current efforts aimed at achieving development goals in today's macro-economically constrained environment and meeting broader development objectives in the context of Pakistan's prevailing geo-strategic challenges. The reform agenda proposed herein comes at a critical time in theevolution of interest in global health from 'diseases' to 'systems' and therefore has a bearing on health systems in other developing countries, most of which have mixed health systems. As such, the normative framework is envisaged to be a useful contribution in the space of global health.

Vital Signs
Vital Signs

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-08-26

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0309324963

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Thousands of measures are in use today to assess health and health care in the United States. Although many of these measures provide useful information, their usefulness in either gauging or guiding performance improvement in health and health care is seriously limited by their sheer number, as well as their lack of consistency, compatibility, reliability, focus, and organization. To achieve better health at lower cost, all stakeholders - including health professionals, payers, policy makers, and members of the public - must be alert to what matters most. What are the core measures that will yield the clearest understanding and focus on better health and well-being for Americans? Vital Signs explores the most important issues - healthier people, better quality care, affordable care, and engaged individuals and communities - and specifies a streamlined set of 15 core measures. These measures, if standardized and applied at national, state, local, and institutional levels across the country, will transform the effectiveness, efficiency, and burden of health measurement and help accelerate focus and progress on our highest health priorities. Vital Signs also describes the leadership and activities necessary to refine, apply, maintain, and revise the measures over time, as well as how they can improve the focus and utility of measures outside the core set. If health care is to become more effective and more efficient, sharper attention is required on the elements most important to health and health care. Vital Signs lays the groundwork for the adoption of core measures that, if systematically applied, will yield better health at a lower cost for all Americans.