Understanding Health Policy by Bodenheimer, Kevin Grumbach, Kevin Grumbach

From the Publisher

The most clinically applicable textbook on the subject of healthcare

With a brand-new, two-color design that complements the already lucid writing style, this new edition of Understanding Health Policy makes the subject of healthcare principles, structures, and financial underpinnings more accessible than ever. Ideal for anyone involved in the industry, from students to clinicians to administrators, it brings you up to date on all the burning issues of healthcare, including government and private insurance issues, access to care, and the machinations of healthcare delivery.

The authors, two doctors internationally recognized for their work on health policy, have provided valuable new information on the pharmaceutical industry, non-physician healthcare workforce, and developments in policy, including Medicare Part D. International in scope, Understanding Health Policy contains questions for review and discussion to facilitate classroom use and to reinforce knowledge for individual readers.

Annals of Internal Medicine

This highly readable text gives a broad but detailed picture of how health care is organized and dispensed in the United States. It considers the problems of, and possible solutions for, cost control, long-term care, quality control, ethical issues, and insurance programs. Clinicians are likely to find the text attractive because of its supportive flowcharts and its frequent use of specific, concrete examples.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Eugene C. Rich, MD (Creighton University Medical Center)
Description: This relatively brief book provides a surprisingly comprehensive overview of the U.S. healthcare system; the previous edition was published 1998.
Purpose: The authors’ stated purpose is to "explain how the health care system works." focusing on basic principles of healthcare policy and emphasizing comparisons with other systems as well as opportunities for change in our own.
Audience: The stated audience is health science students (e.g., medical, nursing, physician assistant, pharmacy, public health).
Features: In 19 chapters ranging from "Paying for Health Care" to "Mechanisms for Controlling Cost" to "The Quality of Health Care," the authors skillfully use clinical vignettes, administrative case studies, historical examples, and illustrations to describe the U.S. healthcare system. Most vignettes work well as accurate and illustrative archetypes of real world situations. A few are oversimplified from the practitioner’s viewpoint, but likely serve adequately in their chief application of teaching health sciences students. The section on quality of care lacks substantive discussion of medical errors and patient safety initiatives.
Assessment: This is generally an excellent book, filled with interesting information not only for the student, but for the experienced practitioner and administrator as well. Given the rapid changes in the U.S. healthcare system since 1998, this third edition is well justified. The book was originally conceived and written during an era when many health policy experts expected U.S. healthcare to be reorganized into integrated care delivery systems financed by capitation; nonetheless, in chapter 16 the authors acknowledge the recent national divergence in strategies and review implications for the future.

Rating

4 Stars! from Doody

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents