The Subcommittee met in the first of a series of hearings on graduate medical education aimed at developing a new Medicare health professional education and teaching hospital payment policy. The hearing examined new policies for training future health professionals, future medical manpower needs, and the financing of teaching hospitals. Current…

The social and economic changes of Medicare and Medicaid broadened the patient base for teaching, universalized student involvement in the teaching hospital, and improved the care of both the poor and the well-to-do. (MLW)

This report reviews certain aspects of the effectiveness of the Public Law 96-265 provisions (Section 1882 of the Social Security Act) designed to protect the elderly against substandard and overpriced health insurance policies supplementing Medicare. This document on Medigap policies includes an executive summary and five chapters. Chapter 1…

A study examined American newspaper coverage of the Harvard Medicare Project proposal of 1986, a major health policy proposal calling for comprehensive reforms in the national health program. Using Burrelle's news clipping service which includes every daily newspaper (over 1500) in the United States, all 75 newspaper articles on the project from…

Context: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a common and important cause of admission to US rural hospitals, as transport of patients with AMI to urban settings can result in unacceptable delays in care. Purpose: To examine the quality of care for patients with AMI in rural hospitals with differing degrees of remoteness from urban centers.…

This research study examined the best practices for a successful rollout of check-in kiosks from the perspectives of frontline service employees (FLSEs) in an outpatient medical setting, the benefits and positive experiences of the kiosks, and those factors that helped to motivate the FLSEs to perform their role in promoting the use of the kiosks.…

This paper looks at the three employee benefit items that are most costly for employers--retirement programs, Social Security/Medicare contributions, and major medical insurance coverage--to estimate the costs of these benefits in school districts in the 15 states of the Southern Regional Education Board (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,…

A study examined the relationships between the media, public opinion and the Medicare Catastrophic Act of 1988 which was repealed in 1989. Using the NEXIS electronic database, 11 years (1977-89) of news articles, opinion pieces, editorials, and letters to the editor were harvested in random sequence from the Associated Press news wire, the…

Children's access to Medicaid dental services is a long-standing concern. The tragic case of a 12-year-old boy who died from an untreated infected tooth that led to a fatal brain infection renewed attention to this issue. He was enrolled in Medicaid--a joint federal and state program that provides health care coverage, including dental care, for…

Purpose: To identify characteristics and outcomes of patients who use physician assistants and nurse practitioners (PA/NPs) as a usual source of care. Methods: Cross sectional analysis using the telephone and mail surveys of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a prospective cohort study of Wisconsin high school graduates and selected siblings…

To curb the epidemic of obesity in the United States, revised Medicare policy allows support for efficacious obesity treatments. This review summarizes the evidence from rigorous randomized trials (9 lifestyle trials, 5 drug trials, and 2 surgical trials) on the efficacy and risk-benefit profile of lifestyle, drug, and surgical interventions aimed…

The aim of the current study was to examine the interactive effects of depressive symptoms and lower extremity functioning on social participation for a group of moderately to severely disabled older women. The study used a cross-sectional community based sample, enrolled in the Women's Health and Aging Study I, randomly selected from the Centers…

The annual survey, undertaken by the Association of American Medical Colleges, of income, expense and general operating information for university-owned teaching hospitals is discussed. Focus is on sources of income, including state funds, Medicare, and insurance companies. (JMD)

Context: Cancer care requires specialty surgical and medical resources that are less likely to be found in rural areas. Purpose: To examine the travel patterns and distances of rural and urban colorectal cancer (CRC) patients to 3 types of specialty cancer care services--surgery, medical oncology consultation, and radiation oncology consultation.…

Public health agencies protect the health and safety of populations. A key function of public health agencies is surveillance or the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data about health-related events. Recent public health events, such as the H1N1 outbreak, have triggered increased funding for and…