Journal of health politics, policy and law
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J Health Polit Policy Law · Jan 1985
Medicare reimbursement for hospice care: ethical and policy implications of cost-containment strategies.
In several areas of health policy, current concern over rising costs has generated considerably political support for reforms that many in the business have advocated unsuccessfully on philosophical, ethical, or humanitarian grounds for years. Thus, for example, the spiraling cost of caring for the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled in an institutional setting has breathed new life into proposals to bring these groups out into the community where they can live more independently--and more cheaply. ⋯ Medicare reimbursement for hospice care, authorized by Section 122 of PL 97-248, the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, provides one recent example of this dilemma. This article discusses the results of a survey--conducted by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services--to discover how many hospices would seek certification for reimbursement by Medicare, how many patients would be served, and the consequences of this legislation for cost, access, and quality of service.
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J Health Polit Policy Law · Jan 1981
Vision care for the nation's elderly: a plea for policy direction.
Eye care services are largely provided by two professional groups--optometrists and ophthalmologists. Professional rivalry between the two exists mainly because both are in direct competition for patients with routine diagnostic and treatment needs. ⋯ Medicare specifically excludes routine eye care and refractive services, but includes diagnosis and treatment of ocular disease. This article examines the impact of eye care benefit exclusions and restrictions and their effect upon the use of ophthalmological and optometric services by the elderly.
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J Health Polit Policy Law · Jan 1978
The distributional effects of national health insurance in Quebec.
In November of 1970 a major change in public health policy occurred in Quebec: the movement from a mixed private-public system to a completely public system of financing health care (known as Medicare). This policy change had important economic effects on the distribution of income, taxation, and health care costs. ⋯ The key results that emerge are: the total cost of medical care increases sharply for all of the income groups, and the burden of the cost of medical care becomes more equitable across the income groups. Based on these results, policy considerations for the present debate on national health insurance in the United States are offered.