Health care financing in Australia: there is no solution.
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The nation continues its ceaseless struggle with the spiraling cost of health care. Previous efforts (regulation, competition, voluntary action) have included almost every strategy except clinical. Insurers have largely failed in their cost-containment efforts. There is a strong emerging body of literature that demonstrates the relationship between various clinical strategies and reductions in utilization and costs. This article describes the organization of health services, including integration of delivery and financing systems, at the community level as a model that effectively addresses the critical structural flaws that have frustrated control of costs. Community-based health plans (CHPs) have been developed and have demonstrated viability. The key elements of CHPs are a legal organizational structure, a full provider network, advanced care-management systems, and the ability to assume financial risk. Common misconceptions regarding obstacles to CHP development are the complexity of the undertaking, difficulty assuming the insurance function, and insured pools that are too small to be viable. The characteristics of successful CHPs and 2 case studies are described, including the types of advanced care-management systems that have resulted in strong financial performance. The demonstrated ability of CHPs to establish financial viability with small numbers of enrollees challenges the common assumption that there is a fixed relationship between health plan enrollment size and financial performance. Organizing the health system at the community/regional level provides an attractive alternative model in the health-reform debate. There is an opportunity for clinical systems and state and federal leaders to support the development of community-based integrated delivery and financing system models that, among other advantages, have significant potential to modulate the pernicious cost spiral.
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When the area surrounding Greater Southeast Community Hospital, Washington, DC, changed from a middle-class commuter neighborhood to one populated mainly by the poor and elderly in the early 1970s, hospital officials decided to stay and serve where they were needed most. The 450-bed hospital now sponsors a wide variety of health and community development programs. In recognition of its commitment to community service, Greater Southeast Community Hospital was awarded this year's Foster G. McGaw Prize by the American Hospital Association, Chicago, and the Baxter Foundation, Deerfield, IL. Thomas Chapman, president of Greater Southeast Community Hospital, recently talked about the importance of community service with Hospitals finance coordinator Howard Larkin.
Primary health care (PHC) services are now recognized as a mainstay of development in low-income regions of the world. Yet, in many of these areas, economic conditions that include a burgeoning international debt, precipitous drops in the prices of raw materials, expanding population bases, and faltering currency rates, make the effective financing of PHC services an issue requiring the most immediate attention. A potentially valuable source of assistance in such endeavors is data on consumers' payment patterns for PHC services, and on socioeconomic conditions within their communities. The Centro de Pesquisas de Assistência Integrada à Mulher e à Criança (CPAIMC), the principal private source of PHC in Rio de Janeiro, has collected these type of data for nine low-income communities (LICs) within the Greater Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. The current paper interfaces these data with previously developed solutions to address the problem of financing PHC services within the nine LICs. The solutions were recommended by a methodology developed and implemented by two of the authors. Results indicate that the consumer payment pattern and socioeconomic data support the methodology's recommendations and, more importantly, may be used to improve the effectiveness of those recommendations. Examples are provided and implications discussed.
Voucher-based reinforcement therapy (VBRT) is an effective drug abuse treatment, but the cost of VBRT rewards has limited its dissemination. Obtaining VBRT incentives through donations may be one way to overcome this barrier. Two direct mail campaigns solicited donations for use in VBRT for pregnant, postpartum, and parenting drug users in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and in Los Angeles, California. In Toronto, 19% of those contacted over 2 months donated 8,000 dollars (4,000 dollars/month) of goods and services. In Los Angeles, nearly 26% of those contacted over 34 months donated 161,000 dollars (4,472dollars/month) of goods and services. Maintaining voucher programs by soliciting donations is feasible and sustainable. The methods in this article can serve as a guide for successful donation solicitation campaigns. Donations offer an alternative for obtaining VBRT rewards for substance abuse treatment and may increase its dissemination.
Since 1977, Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York City has been creating and maintaining supportive housing offerings for at-risk populations, such as individuals with HIV/AIDS, those with substance abuse challenges, and the mentally ill. By providing a continuum of medical and social services, the organization aims to help residents stabilize and rebuild their lives. Saint Vincent sees empowerment as a key step toward helping individuals maintain their health, re-enter the community, seek employment, and pursue other goals. Some of the supportive services Saint Vincent offers in its housing communities are care coordination, counseling, peer support networks, self-help groups, leisure activities, help with finances, and referrals to community agencies offering other resources. Recognizing the importance of job training and assistance, the system also offers a unique program in which mentally ill individuals are able to work in a recycling center or office cleaning business, both of which are owned by Saint Vincent.
Women in Indonesia are playing an increasingly large part in economic activity and community development. Moreover, they are making a significant beneficial impact on the nation's health, most notably, perhaps, by helping to secure financial resources. The present article describes some of the ways in which women are working to improve the well-being of the Indonesian people.
We are going through a transformation of our health services from a community and patient focus fueled by fee-for-service and cost-plus reimbursement. This transformation, called managed care, is shifting power away from professionals and communities into both new and old organizations financed by Wall Street. Even traditional community organizations are driven by Wall Street-dictated financial ratios that represent scoreboards to determine who gets capital for growth and development. Times are changing, organizations are changing, and still more change is ahead.
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The concepts of milieu therapy have, in the past 20 years, been widely applied to various facilities for treatment of people with emotional and mental illness. One type of milieu therapy, the Therapeutic Community, has gained increasing acceptance, as a means of implementing milieu therapy. This paper describes the application of therapeutic community concepts to the in-hospital population of a private, open-staffed, open-door psychiatric facility, and some of the effects that this has had on both the staff, and the patient population. Since the development of the therapeutic community concept almost 25 years ago, programs have been developed in various centers which implement the concepts of social psychiatry in different ways. This paper describes the development of a particular therapeutic community on the in-patient adult and adolescent psychiatric services of a private psychiatric hospital. Parkwood was developed as a small (40 bed) psychiatric hospital in Atlanta, Georgia in 1966 by a group of physicians wanting to implement the ideas of milieu therapy in an area where no such program was available. In its initial stages, the hospital -- of attractive, middle-class decor -- was built in a wooded setting on the edge of a large metropolis. It was open-staffed, with psychiatrists having an eclectic, though psychoanalytically based, orientation toward treatment. The concepts of milieu therapy were interpreted to mean the following: a warm, pleasant atmosphere, in pleasant surroundings, conducive to the usual brief psychotherapy, chemotherapy, or somatic therapy, which had previously been used in non-milieu psychiatric hospitals. The total hospital patient population was divided in half and met in group sessions with a psychiatrist once each week. The Medical Director, a psychiatrist, had weekly staff meetings, in which he discussed various administrative problems. In 1969, a Medical Director with a therapeutic community orientation was employed. Over a five-year period, the total complexion of the hospital changed to its present state, an open-staffed, open door, comprehensive, community mental health center financed on a private basis. The facility now provides out-patient, partial or total hospitalization, emergency services, and community education for children, adolescents, adults and alcohol addicted patients. This paper deals with the therapeutic community on the adult and adolescent units.
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This article develops a framework for identifying community long-term care program and policy features that support or hinder client autonomy. After introducing the topic, the authors develop a contextual approach for understanding individual autonomy and discuss its relevance to community long-term care. They also illustrate how current financing, organization, and delivery of community long-term care provide clients with opportunities for meaningful choice. The authors summarize the implications that a contextual autonomy approach has for both community long-term care policy and program features and make specific policy recommendations.
A paucity of reliable data exists concerning ventilator-assisted individuals (VAIs) for program planning. The Chicago Lung Association, with funding from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois, conducted a community action project to determine the magnitude of the issues in Illinois. The purposes of the VAI Study were to ascertain needs and resources, generate recommendations, and recruit community involvement. The survey identified 453 VAIs: 145 in hospitals, 105 in extended-care facilities, and 203 at home. A majority (62 percent) of hospitals provided services to VAIs; many more would with proper reimbursement incentives. Only 60 percent of hospitals serving VAIs had active discharge teams; discharge was accomplished by a variety of mechanisms and personnel. Monthly hospital charges averaged $22,190 with a range from $10,020 to $66,750 depending on the location of the patient. Most reimbursement was public; private funding was fragmented. Major discharge barriers were inadequate payment for community-based services, limited community resources, constrained consumer's finances, and lack of access to information. Recommendations for future community action included establishing a technology transfer system, home care case management, an integrated management system, a documentation center, and trials and demonstrations prior to program and policy development.
At the beginning of the 1990s, health service reforms were implemented in public health institutions in most African countries South of the Sahara. In the Ivory Coast, the imposition of user fees for public services was adopted in 1994. Such fees require each person to have adequate financial resources in order to access modern health care services. Many poor people--despite their poverty--are able to access modern health care services that have become quite expensive. The factor that allows this access lies within the solidarity of parents, friends or members of a social network. In Africa, illness is a social phenomenon and a state of illness is negative. The sick human being is one who cannot fully participate in community life. The treatment of a sick person is, then, an act, which is tied to the systems of life, which are produced and maintained collectively. Once the causes of illness are identified and consequences evaluated, it is the entire family or group that participates in the finances which bring about treatment. In this study, we show the role of social capital in the processes of financial solidarity for access to modern health care services that now require payment. Our investigation provides valuable insights on the role of social capital with respect to social strategies and community financing mechanisms for the acquisition of modern health care in Africa.
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Very little is known about the Philippine health care system, and in particular its experience with social health insurance (SHI). Having initiated an SHI programme 35 years ago, the Philippines hold many lessons for the development of such schemes in other low and middle-income countries. We analyse the challenges currently facing PhilHealth, the national health insurer. PhilHealth was formed in 1995 as a successor to the Medicare programme and was given a mandate to achieve universal coverage by 2010. To date, PhilHealth has been quite successful in some areas (e.g. enrollment), but lags behind in others (e.g. quality and price control). We conclude that SHI in the Philippines has been a success story so far and provides lessons for countries in a similar situation. For example: (i) SHI is based on value decisions and the clear statement of societal goals can give guidance in the technical execution, (ii) SHI is a financing institution and needs to be treated accordingly, (iii) SHI can be implemented independently of the current economic situation and might actually contribute to economic development, (iv) community-based health care financing schemes should be merged with the national SHI in the long run, and (v) there is a strong need to push for high quality care and improved physical access. No clear suggestions can be given with respect to the benefit catalogue and the balance between economies of scale and decentralisation. Although riddled with many inadequacies, PhilHealth was set up as a strong and largely politically independent institution for the development of SHI. SHI can act as a stabilizing institution in a politically and economically volatile environment.