Health Care Regulation in America: Complexity, Confrontation, and Compromise

Regulation shapes all aspects of America's fragmented health care industry, from the flow of dollars to the communication between physicians and patients. It is the engine that translates public policy into action. 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. Government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels direct portions of the industry, but hundreds of private organizations do so as well. Some of these overseers compete with one another, some conflict, and others collaborate. Their interaction is as important to the provision of health care as are the laws and rules they implement.

Health Care Regulation in America is a guide to this regulatory maze. It succinctly recaps the past and present conflicts that have guided the oversight of each industry segment over the past hundred years and explains the structure of regulation today. To make the system comprehensible, this book also presents the sweep of regulatory policy in the context of the interests, values, goals, and issues that guide it. Chapters cover the process of regulation and each key area of regulatory focus - professionals, institutions, financing arrangements, drugs and devices, public health, business relationships, and research.

In a uniquely American way, the system thrives on confrontation between competing interests but survives by engendering compromise. Robert Field shows that health care regulation is an inexorable force that nurtures as well as restricts the enterprise of American health care. For the student, practitioner, executive, policy analyst, or concerned citizen, this book is an invaluable guide to the policy, politics, and practice of an industry that directly touches us all. Read more Continue reading Read less REVIEW
"This invaluable book fills a major gap in the health services research literature. It is an important source of information on health care regulations for health professionals, policy analysts, researchers, graduate students in medicine, nursing, public health, and public policy studies, and concerned citizens who are interested in unraveling the complex maze of regulations that govern America's health care."--Inquiry"Professor Robert I. Field succeeds in charting a map of health law in his new book...Anyone seeking an introduction to health law or teaching within the field will find the book valuable, and, by incorporating health economics into its organizational framework, the book also offers promising paths for future cartographers and explorers of the terrain."--The Journal of Legal Medicine BOOK DESCRIPTION
A complete guide to the complexities of the regulations of the American health care system. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert I. Field is at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Read more Continue reading Read less