Understanding Health Policy: A Clinical Approach, Eighth Edition / Edition 8

by Kevin Grumbach, Thomas Bodenheimer

Overview

The most trusted and comprehensive guide to the healthcare system—fully updated with the latest changes and trends

A Doody's Core Title for 2022!

Understanding Health Policy: A Clinical Approach provides everything you need to master the healthcare system’s nuances and complexities, work more effectively with other members of healthcare teams, and identify areas in need of change.

Written by practicing primary care physicians who are experts in healthcare policy, this peerless guide covers the entire scope of the U.S. healthcare system and draws on lessons from systems in other nations. The authors carefully weave key principles, descriptions, and concrete examples into chapters that make vital health policy issues interesting and understandable. Whether you’re a student, medical practitioner, or public policy professional, you will come away with a clearer, more systematic way of thinking about our healthcare system, its biggest challenges, and the most effective ways of making it better for everyone.

Features

• Covers every aspect of healthcare, including finance, organization, and reimbursement
• Delivers updated information on the Affordable Care Act, Accountable Care Organizations, and system consolidation
• Provides new insights into the role of social determinants in patient health
• Clinical vignettes highlight key policy issues and clarify difficult concepts

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781260454260
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	04/02/2020
Edition description:	8th ed.
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Thomas Bodenheimer, MD, is Professor Emeritus of Family and Community Medicine, University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine.

Kevin Grumbach, MD, is Chair, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine.

Table of Contents

Preface v

1 Introduction: The Paradox of Excess and Deprivation 1

2 Paying for Health Care 5

3 Access to Health Care 19

4 Paying Health-Care Providers 35

5 How Health Care Is Organized-I: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Care 47

6 How Health Care Is Organized-II: Health Delivery Systems 61

7 The-Health Care Workforce and the Education of Health Professionals 75

8 Painful Versus Painless Cost Control 91

9 Mechanisms for Controlling Costs 105

10 Quality of Health Care 117

11 Prevention of illness 135

12 Long-Term Care 145

13 Medical Ethics and Rationing of Health Care 153

14 Health Care in Four Nations 169

15 Health Care Reform and National Health Insurance 185

16 Conflict and Change in America's Health Care System 197

17 Conclusion: Tensions and Challenges 209

18 Questions and Discussion Topics 213

Index 221

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Carole A. Kenner, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP, ANEF (The College of New Jersey)
Description: This policy book uses clinical vignettes to illustrate health policy. Topics include healthcare access, financing, models of care delivery in a variety of settings, ethical dilemmas, and changes in healthcare insurance coverage in the current political environment. Illustrations and tables facilitate the understanding of complex issues. The last chapter presents questions for discussion. This is the eighth edition; the last edition was published in 2016.
Purpose: According to the book, it describes how healthcare systems work, the challenges faced in the US, opportunities for improvement, and how the US system compares with other countries.
Audience: The intended audience includes healthcare professional students and practitioners. The book meets the needs of this audience. The authors are credible based on their experience and credentials.
Features: Chapters are short and easy to read. Illustrations and tables depict key concepts. By using clinical vignettes throughout, readers can "see" how the healthcare system works or fails and the policy implications. Topics include access to care, various payor systems, regionalization of care and impact on services, vertical and horizontal integration of services, along with contrasts with consumer driven health systems in Europe that demonstrate how the US system is industry driven and dispersed. The healthcare workforce description briefly includes staff and advanced practice nurses, including Doctor of Nursing Practice nurses who the authors call "doctors," but in the section on pharmacists this is not mentioned. Reimbursement of nurses is not mentioned. Quality indicators and various methods of rationing services due to finances or access is coupled with ethical considerations. The last section provides discussion topics and questions that can be used in clinical or classroom situations.
Assessment: This is the eighth edition of a unique book. Its strength that sets it apart from other books is its use of very short clinical stories. This edition provides an update of the Affordable Care Act, social determinants of health, and policy implications of the changes in healthcare systems.

Doody's Review Service