"Policy, performance and finance are the issues currently headlining the healthcare agenda and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Drawing on experiences from around the world, this essential collection examines the key strategic issues facing health services and analyzes the policy implications of leading new research. The volume brings together 16 newly-commissioned studies from leading experts in health studies, in particular: policy, economics, health care management and health services research. International in perspective and scope, it draws on empirical evidence from East and West Europe, Canada, New Zealand and the Middle East. Themes covered include: health policy and technology assessment, policy and performance, international policy innovation, and organizational innovation. This ground-breaking collection will prove a valuable guide for policy makers, managers, practitioners, researchers and students."--Provided by publisher.

Policy, performance and finance are the issues currently headlining the healthcare agenda and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Drawing on experiences from around the world, this essential collection examines the key strategic issues facing health services and analyzes the policy implications for leading new research.

The increasing pressure on the bottom line of healthcare provider organizations requires leaders who understand and can adeptly apply the basic principles of effective financial and operations management. To be successful in today's environment leaders must simultaneously improve quality and service while reducing expense. Improving Financial and Operations Performance: A Healthcare Leader's Guide is a collection of proven effective tips, tools, and techniques accumulated from real-world challenges and lessons learned logically organized to provide a straightforward approach to planning, assessing, managing, and monitoring a business enterprise to improve profitability. This book provides a clear, step-by-step "how to" approach for both new and experienced leaders seeking a leg up in tackling the myriad of common and complex challenges they are facing including conducting a budget variance analysis, managing labor and non-labor productivity and expense, performing a comprehensive financial condition analysis, growing profitable volume and market share, developing an effective business case for improving quality, and evaluating the financial impact of a future project. Written for clinical and administrative leaders working in the trenches, it provides practical and applicable tools with relevant, real-world, and replicable case study examples. The essential value of Improving Financial and Operations Performance: A Healthcare Leader's Guide is improving decision-making effectiveness, enhancing operations efficiency know-how, and developing strong financial management acumen to overcome the challenges in today's healthcare environment. Key Features: Author experience with extensive expertise as a former investor-owned hospital CEO, integrated health system vice president, managing director for the renowned turnaround experts, the Hunter Group, and graduate business school professor in management, finance, and economics. Realistic case examples to apply the key lessons through detailed practical and relevant case studies using clear step-by-step instructions. Calls-to-action at the end of each chapter with critical leadership imperatives to help prioritize and focus efforts on what matters most. Comprehensive glossary of key terms and concepts using plain easy to understand language. Appendices and Excel templates containing easy-to-use plug-and-play financial worksheets, checklists, best practice pathways, and performance assessments.

"This trusted resource explores finance theory and its practical application in health care across a full range of facilities, from hospitals and home health agencies to skilled nursing facilities, surgical centers and private physician practices. The vast, complex nature of the U.S. health care system renders traditional approaches to finance insufficient. Importantly, Essentials of Health Care Finance couches its discussion of economics, accounting and financial topics firmly within the unique context of the health care industry. Relevant and readable, this Eighth Edition of Essentials of Health Care Finance is fully revised and updated with current, real-world examples of financial problems and solutions as well as the latest financial ratio standards. This new edition also introduces ICD-10 coding and offers comprehensive coverage of the impact of the Affordable Care Act in all relevant chapters."--

Health care reform has dominated public discourse over the past several years, and the recent passage of the Affordable Care Act, rather than quell the rhetoric, has sparked even more debate. Donald A. Barr reviews the current structure of the American health care system, describing the historical and political contexts in which it developed and the core policy issues that continue to confront us today. This comprehensive analysis introduces the various organizations and institutions that make the U.S. health care system work—or fail to work, as the case may be. A principal message of the book is the seeming paradox of the quality of health care in this country—on the one hand it is the best medical care system in the world, on the other it is one of the worst among developed countries because of how it is organized. Barr introduces readers to broad cultural issues surrounding health care policy, such as access, affordability, and quality. He discusses specific elements of U.S. health care, including insurance, especially Medicare and Medicaid, the shift to for-profit managed care, the pharmaceutical industry, issues of long-term care, the plight of the uninsured, medical errors, and nursing shortages. The latest edition of this widely adopted text updates the description and discussion of key sectors of America’s health care system in light of the Affordable Care Act.

Stands firmly in its place as the leading textbook on health care finance.

Designated a Doody's Core Title! Winner of an AJN Book of the Year Award! Who Has a Right to Health Care? What Is the Government's Role in Providing Accessible Health Care? How Are Corporations, Insurance Companies, and Health Care Providers Affecting the Quality of Health Care? And, Most Importantly, Can We Reform the U.S. Health Care System? We often debate these issues in health care policy or public health courses, yet we do so without the proper knowledge of the underlying structure of the U.S. health care system--or a framework by which it can be judged. Many health care workers entering the system are ill-equipped to address the issues faced in direct health care practice, in part because they have no ability to evaluate it. In this innovative text, Gunnar Almgren provides all the tools necessary to understand and critique a health care policy in dire need of change. First, he describes the historical evolution of U.S. health care, explaining how the early roles of hospitals, doctors, and nurses still influence today's system. He explains the complex financial aspects of health care, including the concerns of all its major stakeholders. He looks at the government's role in regulating and funding health care, and how that role has expanded and contracted through various political administrations. An entire chapter describes the facilities and services available for the elderly--an issue that will continue to rise in importance as America ages. Finally, he examines the many causes of disparities in the U.S. health care system. In addition, Almgren offers a unique social justice analysis as a framework by which the current system--and proposed reforms--can be judged. By analyzing the health care system through various models of social justice, we can begin to understand and address the urgent issues of economic, racial, and geographic disparities that plague our current system. With its clear, thorough, and comprehensive coverage of U.S. health care, this unique text is accessible to all those in public health, nursing, social work, public policy, or public administration. No other book addresses the underlying issues of the U.S. health care system alongside a variety of social justice models that we can use to evaluate, and perhaps eventually, change it.