As millions of Americans are aware, health care costs continue to increase rapidly. Much of this increase in health care costs is due to the development of new life-sustaining drugs and procedures, but part of it is due to the increased monopoly power of physicians, insurance companies, and hospitals, as the health care sector undergoes reorganization and consolidation. There are two tools to limit the growth of monopoly power: government regulation and antitrust policy. In this timely book, Deborah Haas-Wilson argues that enforcement of the antitrust laws is the tool of choice in most cases. Focusing on the economic concepts necessary to the enforcement of the antitrust laws in health care markets, Haas-Wilson provides a useful roadmap for guiding the future of these markets.

This thoroughly revised and updated book provides a strategic and operational resource for use in planning and decision-making. The Handbook enables readers to fine-tune operation strategies by providing updates on critical managed care issues, insights to the complex managed care environment, and methods to gain and maintain cost-efficient, high quality health services. With 30 new chapters, it includes advice from managers in the field on how to succeed in every aspect of managed care including: quality management, claims and benefits administration, and managing patient demand. The Handbook is considered to be the standard resource for the managed care industry.

This book is a guide to strategic training for physicians in an era of managed care. The first half of the book provides a step-by-step process to help physicians take their practices into the new world of integrated delivery systems. The second half of the book covers a variety of key topics such as credentialing, reimbursement systems, and utilization management.

Here in 25 authoritative articles drawn from the highly respected journal Health Care Management Review, you'll discover what you'll need to lead your organization into the generation of managed care. From short range issues like making existing product lines efficient to the policy logic of building comprehensive, integrated systems, this reference will help managers in a provider, insurer, buyer, or government organization create a successfully integrated organization.

One of the most important functions of government—risk management—is one of the least well understood. Moving beyond familiar public functions—spending, taxation, and regulation—Moss spotlights government's pivotal role as a risk manager, revealing the nature and extent of this function, which touches almost every aspect of economic life.

Regulation shapes all aspects of America's fragmented health care industry. While the health and lives of patients as well as almost one-sixth of the national economy depend on its effectiveness, health care regulation in America is bewilderingly complex. 'Health Care Regulation in America' is a guide to this regulatory maze.

For courses in Health Economics, U.S. Health Policy/Systems, or Public Health, taken by health services students or practitioners, the text makes economic concepts the backbone of its health care coverage. Folland, Goodman and Stano's book is the bestselling Health Care Economics text that teaches through core economic themes, rather than concepts unique to the health care economy. This edition contains revised and updated data tables, where applicable. The advent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010 has also led to changes in many chapters , most notably in the organization and focus of Chapter 16.