Notes that, lacking objective, comprehensive information about health care coverage options, Medicare beneficiaries rarely understand consequences of alternative purchasing decisions. Describes Illness Episode Approach, method providing information on Medicare, Medigap policies, and Health Maintenance Organizations. Method described presents…

Asserts that managing mental health and substance abuse utilization in a complex network health maintenance organization (HMO) can be accomplished through comprehensive approach. Describes prescreening of admissions and preferred provider contracts of one HMO's managed care system. Explains savings resulting from averting unnecessary admissions.…

Examines what was learned from channeling demonstration about potential of case management agency systems for administering home care benefits. Considers both advantages (substitution of lower cost for higher cost services, negotiation of lower prices for services, quality assurance) and disadvantages (difficulty controlling participation rates,…

Through asset recovery programs, states can recover from the estates of nursing home residents or their survivors a portion of the expenses the state incurs in providing nursing home care. Estate recovery programs require Medicaid recipients whose primary assets are their homes to contribute toward the cost of their nursing home care in the same…

The National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment conducted a study to examine how Americans use health care services and to determine national patterns of health expenditures and insurance coverage. Data were obtained from the National Medical Care Expenditure Survey interviews conducted with 14,000 randomly…

Virtually every employer has it in their power to reduce their employee health care costs by 10-20 percent or more. The solution to the rising health care costs problem is a total health care system. Most cost savings potential will be centered in three areas: control of wasteful and often harmful use of the health care system; provider price…

Discusses how psychologists have established themselves as integral health care providers in rehabilitation. Discusses how psychologists and the psychological associations have failed to recognize the importance of public policy for the practice of psychology. Explores the role of Medicare, and the effects of the inclusion of psychologists in…

Presents case of psychotherapist and 40-year-old female client whom he sees twice weekly in individual sessions. Describes client's symptoms and progress over 2.5 years of therapy and focuses on client's inability to pay therapy costs. Comments and advice to therapist regarding case are offered by Paul Rosen, Barent Walsh, Michael Stone, and…

This edition of the Role of Market Forces program note suggests empirical and descriptive analyses required to complement new areas of health policy emphasis and direction. Eight areas and related questions involving health economics are outlined: (1) rural health care; (2) medical malpractice and insurance; (3) supply, productivity, and…

This document provides a compilation of tobacco information for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, covering topics such as the prevalence of tobacco use, the health impact and costs associated with tobacco use, tobacco control laws, and tobacco agriculture and manufacturing. Recommended practices for school-based programs are included.…

Describes the demographic trends and health risk factors of the growing elderly population, especially poor minorities. Suggests rethinking traditional hospital and nursing home roles in health care delivery to the elderly, expanding research concerns, reworking access to Medicaid, and ensuring health care to minorities. (CJS)

This "gray paper" addresses the concerns of older women regarding their control over death and dying. It is based on the observation that older women are devalued by society on account of both their age and gender, and hence are likely to be impoverished and vulnerable as they approach death. The paper begins by examining the legal,…

This report describes the current status of families headed by persons under age 30, and compares the economic well-being of the current generation of young families in 1986 with that of the preceding generation in 1973. An analysis of the widening gaps between young families with and without children, between young families headed by persons with…

This report describes improvements in the status of families headed by persons under age 30 from 1986 to 1987 based on figures from "Vanishing Dreams" and the most recent available data drawn from the Current Population Survey. The following sets of economic data are updated: (1) earnings of family heads; (2) young family incomes; and (3) poverty…

This "gray paper" asserts that the physical, emotional, and financial needs of unpaid caregivers--usually women--have been largely ignored in our national health care policy regarding care for the severely disabled elderly. It discusses the problem of the caregiving role for wives of severely incapacitated husbands, noting that the present health…