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Articles 5941 - 5970 of 6128

Full-Text Articles in Public Health

Mental Health Coverage Parity: Separating Wheat From Chaff, Karl Polzer Jul 1999

Mental Health Coverage Parity: Separating Wheat From Chaff, Karl Polzer

National Health Policy Forum

This paper examines the issue of mandating parity in coverage of mental health services in the context of the growing use by private-sector employers of managed behavioral health care providers. Existing parity laws are reviewed, along with estimates of the costs of parity. The tools used by behavioral health care firms to manage care and costs are also discussed.

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Access To Home Health Services Under Medicare's Interim Payment System, Nora Super Jul 1999

Access To Home Health Services Under Medicare's Interim Payment System, Nora Super

National Health Policy Forum

This issue brief explores the impact of the interim payment system (IPS) for home health agencies established under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA). IPS was intended to constrain program outlays by imposing limits on spending per beneficiary and spending per visit in the existing cost-based reimbursement system. This issue brief examines the impact of the IPS on access to home health care, including home health agencies' responses to the payment system and its impact on provider availability and, ultimately, access to care for the sickest or most expensive populations

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Implementing The Bba: The Challenge Of Moving Medicare Post-Acute Services To Pps, Karen Matherlee Jul 1999

Implementing The Bba: The Challenge Of Moving Medicare Post-Acute Services To Pps, Karen Matherlee

National Health Policy Forum

This issue brief examines the challenge of putting skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), medical rehabilitation units, and home health under prospective payment, requiring the development of classification systems for each. It looks at the three-year phase-in of SNF resource utilization groups (RUGs) that began July 1, 1998 and the debate over classification systems for medical rehabilitation facilities and home health. The paper goes beyond issues of classification to consider coordination problems in placing these post-acute services under Medicare PPS.

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Canada's Generalist Training: Are There Lessons For The United States?, Lee Hawkins Jun 1999

Canada's Generalist Training: Are There Lessons For The United States?, Lee Hawkins

National Health Policy Forum

Addressing the premise of an inappropriate skewing of the U.S. medical education system toward specialty medicine, this issue brief compares and contrasts the U.S. and Canadian graduate medical education (GME) systems, including the organization and financing of each. The issue brief also explores various lessons that might be learned from the Canadian GME system, such as full integration of primary care and GME and the use of incentives to achieve desired policy goals.

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Photonovels: Educational Resources To Prevent Agricultural Illnesses And Injuries, M. Susan Jones, Carol A. Koetke Jun 1999

Photonovels: Educational Resources To Prevent Agricultural Illnesses And Injuries, M. Susan Jones, Carol A. Koetke

Nursing Faculty Publications

Photonovels use photographs and a story featuring people from the community, familiar settings, and a simple text to deliver an educational message. This unique educational tool lends itself to a wide variety of topics and targets audiences including farmers, farm workers and their families. Information on how to design, create and use photonovels to prevent agricultural injuries and illnesses will be presented.

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Reducing Medical Error: Can You Be As Safe In A Hospital As You Are In A Jet?, Lisa Sprague May 1999

Reducing Medical Error: Can You Be As Safe In A Hospital As You Are In A Jet?, Lisa Sprague

National Health Policy Forum

This issue brief looks at the incidence of error in the health care system, opportunities for a systems-based approach to error reduction, and changes needed in health system culture and training. The lessons of human factors research are considered, with examples of their application in the aviation industry. The paper reviews some error-reduction and patient-safety initiatives undertaken by private-sector organizations and by the Veterans Health Administration.

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Turnover Of Personal Assistants And The Incidence Of Injury Among Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Meg A. Traci Ph.D., Ann Szalda-Petree Ph.D., Steve Seninger Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute May 1999

Turnover Of Personal Assistants And The Incidence Of Injury Among Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Meg A. Traci Ph.D., Ann Szalda-Petree Ph.D., Steve Seninger Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute

Health and Wellness

Relatively little is known about the incidence and prevalence of injuries and other secondary conditions experienced by adults with developmental disabilities. Understanding the risk factors for secondary conditions and strategies for their prevention is important to people with disabilities, rehabilitation providers, and public health agencies. Many secondary condition prevention strategies require direct involvement of the individual with a disability. However, the nature of some disabling conditions requires help from an intermediary facilitator, frequently known as a “Personal Care Attendant” (PCA) or a “Personal Assistant” (PA).

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Substance Abuse Prevention: Could An Improved D.A.R.E. Program Help Bridge The Gap Between Research And Practice?, Colomba Sirica Apr 1999

Substance Abuse Prevention: Could An Improved D.A.R.E. Program Help Bridge The Gap Between Research And Practice?, Colomba Sirica

National Health Policy Forum

This issue brief provides background information on the popular Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, begun in 1983 and supported by education and law enforcement communities throughout the country to provide drug abuse prevention programs in schools. It describes recent efforts to conduct evaluative studies to assess the short- and long-term impact of the D.A.R.E. curriculum on drug-using behavior of children and youth and the new dialogue opening between D.A.R.E. proponents and the research community.

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Hipaa As A Regulatory Model: Early Experiences And Future Prospects, Karl Polzer Apr 1999

Hipaa As A Regulatory Model: Early Experiences And Future Prospects, Karl Polzer

National Health Policy Forum

In the context of the debate over bolstering consumer protection in health care without imposing excessive costs or onerous regulatory requirements, this paper examines the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) as a regulatory model. The paper reviews the provisions of the legislation, examines the roles of the Department of Labor and the Health Care Financing Administration in implementing HIPAA, raises issues surrounding implementation and enforcement, and examines the usefulness of the HIPAA model as a vehicle for applying consumer protection measures.

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Margins As Measures: Gauging Hospitals' Financial Health, Karen Matherlee Mar 1999

Margins As Measures: Gauging Hospitals' Financial Health, Karen Matherlee

National Health Policy Forum

Recognizing the considerable controversy over ways to measure hospitals' financial viability, this issue brief reviews various ways to assess their fiscal strength. The paper looks first at operating margins, traditional measures that some experts say are inadequate when considered alone. It then explores several recommendations: (a) net income, liquidity and cash flow, and debt burden, suggested by the National Advisory Panel; (b) factors that determine year-to-year changes in hospitals costs, such as hospital input price inflation, changes in care patterns, and the complexity of patients treated, put forth by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission; and (c) 35 financial indicators and …

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Examining The Links Between Retirement And Health Insurance: Implications For Medicare Eligibility, Nora Super Mar 1999

Examining The Links Between Retirement And Health Insurance: Implications For Medicare Eligibility, Nora Super

National Health Policy Forum

This issue brief examines trends in labor force participation and health care coverage for early retirees, as well as the relationship between retirement and health insurance and health status.

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Providing Outpatient Prescription Drugs Through Medicare: Can We Afford To? Can We Afford Not To?, Robin J. Strongin Mar 1999

Providing Outpatient Prescription Drugs Through Medicare: Can We Afford To? Can We Afford Not To?, Robin J. Strongin

National Health Policy Forum

The continuing debate over the issue of Medicare coverage for outpatient prescription drugs gave rise to this background paper, which discussed several key questions: Whose responsibility is it to provide coverage? Who should be covered? What should be covered? Who should pay for prescription drug coverage? How should costs be controlled? In addition, the paper explored options for structuring a Medicare outpatient prescription drug benefit. It also contained a glossary.

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Tribal Environmental & Natural Resource Assistance Handbook, White House Domestic Policy Council, Native American Fish & Wildlife Society Mar 1999

Tribal Environmental & Natural Resource Assistance Handbook, White House Domestic Policy Council, Native American Fish & Wildlife Society

Native Health Database Full Text

This handbook was developed by the Domestic Policy Council Working Group on American Indians and Alaska Natives (Working Group). This handbook is intended to provide a central location for federal sources of both technical and financial assistance available to Tribes for environmental management.

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Welfare Reform And Its Impact On Medicaid: An Update, Judith D. Moore Feb 1999

Welfare Reform And Its Impact On Medicaid: An Update, Judith D. Moore

National Health Policy Forum

Welfare reform, enacted in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), had a profound impact on the Medicaid program, delinking Medicaid from the new TANF program and for the first time allowing Medicaid eligibility to be divorced from welfare status. This paper reviews the national impact of this decoupling, describing research, implementation activities, and the impact of new state welfare programs on health programs in general.

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Biological Terrorism: Is The Health Care Community Prepared?, Robin J. Strongin Feb 1999

Biological Terrorism: Is The Health Care Community Prepared?, Robin J. Strongin

National Health Policy Forum

This issue brief provides an overview of biological warfare and discusses the role of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and state health departments in detecting biologic agents. The brief also highlights the issue of threat assessment and discusses ways to improve the current level of preparedness as well as steps needed to convert the public health system into our best form of civil defense.

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Medicare Hmo Pullouts: What Do They Portend For The Future Of Medicare+Choice?, Nora Super Feb 1999

Medicare Hmo Pullouts: What Do They Portend For The Future Of Medicare+Choice?, Nora Super

National Health Policy Forum

National policymakers became alarmed in the fall of 1998 when, contrary to expectations, nearly 100 Medicare HMOs announced their decisions to pull out of Medicare in certain areas or to reduce their service areas. This issue brief explores the reasons plans withdrew from certain areas, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 provisions that most directly influenced these decisions, the impact of the withdrawals on Medicare beneficiaries, and policy options for ensuring the viability of the Medicare+Choice program.

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Filling The Geriatric Gap: Is The Health System Prepared For An Aging Population?, Janet Firshein Jan 1999

Filling The Geriatric Gap: Is The Health System Prepared For An Aging Population?, Janet Firshein

National Health Policy Forum

This issue brief explores the field of geriatrics, the ways practitioners meet the health care needs of the elderly, training gaps, and the impact of Medicare payment policies on the delivery of health care to older Americans.

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Housing And Population Health: A Review Of The Literature, Stephen Hwang, Esme Fuller-Thomson, J. David Hurlchanski, Toba Bryant, Youssef Habib, Wendy C. Regoeczi Jan 1999

Housing And Population Health: A Review Of The Literature, Stephen Hwang, Esme Fuller-Thomson, J. David Hurlchanski, Toba Bryant, Youssef Habib, Wendy C. Regoeczi

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

Research into the relationship between housing and health has frequently been narrowly focused, fragmented, and of marginal practical relevance to either housing or health studies. Population health research, in its reference to the importance of the social and physical environment, rarely mentions housing. While it has been recognized for some time that there is a need for the development of a co-ordinated, integrated and cumulative body of housing and health research, there is still very little formal co-ordination between housing policy and population health policy. More attention needs to be paid to measuring the nature and extent to which better …

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Native Outreach: A Report To American Indian, Alaska Native And Native Hawaiian Communities, C.S. Glover, F.S. Hodge Jan 1999

Native Outreach: A Report To American Indian, Alaska Native And Native Hawaiian Communities, C.S. Glover, F.S. Hodge

Native Health Database Full Text

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is presenting a monograph written specifically for community leaders, health professionals and lay health workers serving Native American communities. Native Americans have higher mortality rates than the general U.S. population for several major cancer sites. This publication focuses on the need to reduce those rates through effective interventions at the grassroots level.

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American Indians And Crime, Bureau Of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department Of Justice, L.A. Greenfeld, S. Smith Jan 1999

American Indians And Crime, Bureau Of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department Of Justice, L.A. Greenfeld, S. Smith

Native Health Database Full Text

This report represents a compilation and new analysis of data on the effects and consequences of violent crime among American Indians. The report uses data from a wide variety of sources, including statistical series maintained by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the FBI, and the Bureau of the Census. Data are reported from American Indian crime victims on how they were affected by the victimization and about who victimized them. The report also includes the first BJS estimates of the total number of American Indians under the custody or supervision of the justice system.

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Alaska Native Cancer Survival Report, A.P. Lanier, P. Holck, J. Kelly, B. Smith, T. Mcevoy Jan 1999

Alaska Native Cancer Survival Report, A.P. Lanier, P. Holck, J. Kelly, B. Smith, T. Mcevoy

Native Health Database Full Text

This report presents Alaska Native cancer survival rates and stage of disease at diagnosis. Data on survival and stage at diagnosis are given for all cancers combined, and for select primary cancer sites (the organ in which the cancer first began). Survival rates are given for only those cancers for which there were enough patients to calculate reliable estimates. The focus is on five-year relative survival rates because these rates are most commonly used in the cancer literature and most appropriate for comparisons between populations.

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Editorial: Mental Health Needs Assessments Performed By Four Urban American Indian Organizations, D.K. Novins Jan 1999

Editorial: Mental Health Needs Assessments Performed By Four Urban American Indian Organizations, D.K. Novins

Native Health Database Full Text

In 1991, the Indian Health Service funded a nationwide initiative with the goal of determining the need for culturally appropriate mental health services among American Indian people residing in urban areas. In the author's opinion, the assessment method used in this initiative is a valuable, fresh approach that is a significant change from flawed attempts to make these assessments in the past.

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Concepções De Doença Por Familiares De Pacientes Com Diagnóstico De Esquizofrenia: Illness Conceptions Among Relatives Of Patients Diagnosed With Schizophrenia, Cecilia C. Villares, Cristina Redko, E Jair J. Mari Jan 1999

Concepções De Doença Por Familiares De Pacientes Com Diagnóstico De Esquizofrenia: Illness Conceptions Among Relatives Of Patients Diagnosed With Schizophrenia, Cecilia C. Villares, Cristina Redko, E Jair J. Mari

Population and Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Family conceptions of the nature of their relative's illness are part of the coping process and reveal the cultural construction of the illness experience. As part of a larger qualitative study conducted at the Schizophrenia Program of the Department of Psychiatry, Escola Paulista de Medicina - Unifesp, 14 relatives of 8 out-patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were interviewed and invited to talk freely about their ideas and feelings concerning their relative's problem. Qualitative analysis was conducted to elicit categories of illness representations. Three main categories are presented for discussion, Problema de Nervoso, Problema na Cabeça and Problema Espiritual (Nerves, Head and …

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To Immunize Or Not To Immunize, That Is The Question! An Investigation Into The Reasons Behind Parents' Decisions In Immunizing Their Children Against Whooping Cough In Western Australia, Eliena Kirov Jan 1999

To Immunize Or Not To Immunize, That Is The Question! An Investigation Into The Reasons Behind Parents' Decisions In Immunizing Their Children Against Whooping Cough In Western Australia, Eliena Kirov

Theses : Honours

Demographic data on the immunization status of Australia indicates that Western Australia has relatively low immunization coverage for whooping cough. Australian quantitative studies have been carried out on parental attitudes in Australia towards immunization, but there has been no analysis of parents' reasons for their decisions. This study identified the key issues that influenced the decisions made by the target group of parents and explored their decision-making in more depth. The data from this study could also be used to supplement the information currently available to health workers. Eight participants with children between the ages of 2 months and 6 …

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Retooling Tax Subsidies For Health Coverage: Old Ideas, New Politics, Karl Polzer Nov 1998

Retooling Tax Subsidies For Health Coverage: Old Ideas, New Politics, Karl Polzer

National Health Policy Forum

This paper describes the tax treatment of health coverage and health care spending and explores the potential impact of recent tax reform proposals. The paper summarizes the criticisms of the current system and analyzes various alternatives including capping the open-ended tax exclusion of health benefits provided by employers and unions, eliminating the exclusion, and establishing a tax credit.

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Physician Organizations Assuming Risk: Market And Policy Implications, Sandra Foote, Lisa Sprague Nov 1998

Physician Organizations Assuming Risk: Market And Policy Implications, Sandra Foote, Lisa Sprague

National Health Policy Forum

This issue brief looks at capitation contracting between physician groups and health plans and ways in which financial risk and functional responsibilities may be apportioned. It traces the evolution of capitation contracting in California and the legislative and regulatory issues that have arisen.

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Site Visit To Southern California — Plans And Providers: Risk, Accountability, And Staying Power, Lisa Sprague Nov 1998

Site Visit To Southern California — Plans And Providers: Risk, Accountability, And Staying Power, Lisa Sprague

National Health Policy Forum

This site visit was the second of two focused on managed care operations and market dynamics in California, a state notable for high HMO market penetration and intense competition. In southern California, large physician groups and independent practice associations were highly visible and influential. They had assumed significant financial risk and care management responsibility for patients in HMO plans. The result was a distinctly different model of managed care than existed in other regions of the country. The visit included meetings with leaders from physician organizations and managed care organizations in San Diego and Orange counties, as well as an …

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Site Visit To Utah And Nevada — Essential Community Health Services On The Frontier, Karen Matherlee, Michael Anzick Oct 1998

Site Visit To Utah And Nevada — Essential Community Health Services On The Frontier, Karen Matherlee, Michael Anzick

National Health Policy Forum

From the opening dinner to the closing summary, this site visit explored the delivery and financing of essential community services for vulnerable populations in the frontier West. A sequel to the Forum's March 30-31, 1998, urban-centered site visit to Philadelphia, Providing Community-Based Primary Care: Nursing Centers, CHCs, and Other Initiatives, the visit spanned 493 miles. It included overview presentations, bus briefings, facility tours, telehealth demonstrations, panel discussions, and wrap-up reviews. Topics included the Utah health marketplace, the demands of emergency preparedness, the development of a patchwork of services along a continuum ranging from preventive care to tertiary referrals and follow-up, …

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Health And Wellness Among Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Ann Szalda-Petree Ph.D., Meg A. Traci Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute Rural Institute Oct 1998

Health And Wellness Among Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Ann Szalda-Petree Ph.D., Meg A. Traci Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute Rural Institute

Health and Wellness

In 1988, the National Council on Disability published Toward Independence, which identified the prevention of secondary conditions and health promotion for people with disabilities as a major national goal. During the last ten years this goal has grown in importance, with U.S. service corporations and agencies, researchers, policy makers, and even private industry acknowledging its wisdow. An entire section of Healthy People 2010, the nation’s blueprint for promoting the health of the entire population, addresses disability and health. Previous editions in the series contained no explicit sections on disability. Now, disability has its own section, with 12 specific objectives and …

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The State Children's Health Insurance Program: How Much Latitude Do The States Really Have?, Richard Hegner Oct 1998

The State Children's Health Insurance Program: How Much Latitude Do The States Really Have?, Richard Hegner

National Health Policy Forum

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — a major program to cover low-income, uninsured children — was passed as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Its passage was part of a trend of a shifting balance of power between the federal and state governments, particularly in the policy areas of health and social welfare. This issue brief explores the degree of freedom afforded the states by CHIP, the factors guiding state decision making and planning, and the factors influencing the states' various decisions about CHIP. It also discusses state options in four basic areas: participation or nonparticipation …

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