Risk Adjustment, Risk Sharing and Premium Regulation in Health Insurance Markets: Theory and Practice describes the goals, design and evaluation of health plan payment systems. Part I contains 5 chapters discussing the role of health plan payment in regulated health insurance markets, key aspects of payment design (i.e. risk adjustment, risk sharing and premium regulation), and evaluation methods using administrative data on medical spending. Part II contains 14 chapters describing the health plan payment system in 14 countries and sectors around the world, including Australia, Belgium, Chile, China, Columbia, Germany, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland and the United States. Authors discuss the evolution of these payment schemes, along with ongoing reforms and key lessons on the design of health plan payment.

One of the key issues the world grappled with during Covid-19 was the distributional implications of lockdowns globally. The shadow of lockdown policies continues when nations still try to emerge out of the pandemic. Heterogeneity herein over time, country and even within nations in policy making resulted in unintended consequences and debates between citizens, scientists, policy makers and civil society. Responses to Covid-19 meanwhile tried to balance a long run approach which involved the health sector, built on an innovation-oriented mindset and kept in mind the broader economic implications of policy decisions for the future.Flattening the Curve is an effort to summarize these learnings from Covid-19, especially for future pandemics in this age of zoonotic diseases and the Anthropocene. Assembling scholars, scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs from across a variety of fields, this edited volume brings an interdisciplinary understanding to how the world can better respond socially to pandemics. It should be of immense value for students, scholars, policy makers and researchers in public policy, global health, economics, science and innovation policy, as well as regulation and business.

Advancements in medical and healthcare technologies pave the way to improving treatments and diagnoses while also streamlining processes to ensure the highest quality care is given to patients. In the last few decades, revolutionary technology has radically progressed the healthcare industry by increasing life expectancy and reducing human error. Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Medicine and Healthcare provides emerging research on bioinformatics, medical ethics, and clinical science in modern applications and settings. While highlighting the challenges medical practitioners and healthcare professionals face when treating patients and striving to optimize their processes, the book shows how revolutionary technologies and methods are vastly improving how healthcare is implemented globally. This book is an important resource for medical researchers, healthcare administrators, doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers, and students looking for comprehensive research on the advancements in healthcare technologies.

Virtually all fiscal measures influence people's health, through their impacts on behaviour, consumption, income and wealth. A narrow subset of fiscal measures, however, can be more directly aimed at improving health by targeting behaviours and risks that are known to be strongly associated with health outcomes. The purpose of this book is to discuss the subject of these measures, which we define as 'health taxes'. The book aims to enumerate key health taxes of interest, explore their positive and negative effects, and how these effects are influenced by the design of these taxes and the context in which they are applied. We ask how and where they can be implemented. Critically, we build an argument throughout the book for why policymakers across government should care about health taxes.

Dr. Peter Hotez discusses how an antivaccine movement became a dangerous political campaign promoted by elected officials and amplified by news media, causing thousands of American deaths.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, one renowned scientist, in his famous bowtie, appeared daily on major news networks such as MSNBC, NPR, the BBC, and others. Dr. Peter J. Hotez often went without sleep, working around the clock to develop a nonprofit COVID-19 vaccine and to keep the public informed. During that time, he was one of the most trusted voices on the pandemic and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his selfless work. He also became one of the main targets of anti-science rhetoric that gained traction through conservative news media.

In this eyewitness story of how the anti-vaccine movement grew into a dangerous and prominent anti-science element in American politics, Hotez describes the devastating impacts it has had on Americans' health and lives. As a scientist who has endured antagonism from anti-vaxxers and been at the forefront of both essential scientific discovery and advocacy, Hotez is uniquely qualified to tell this story. By weaving his personal experiences together with information on how the anti-vaccine movement became a tool of far-right political figures around the world, Hotez opens readers' eyes to the dangers of anti-science. He explains how anti-science became a major societal and lethal force: in the first years of the pandemic, more than 200,000 unvaccinated Americans needlessly died despite the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines. Even as he paints a picture of the world under a shadow of aggressive ignorance, Hotez demonstrates his innate optimism, offering solutions for how to combat science denial and save lives in the process.

This open access book offers the first in-depth study of the history and current debates surrounding electronic cigarettes comparing the UK, US and Australia. Since their introduction, e-cigarettes have been the subject of much public, media and regulatory attention, with discussion centring on whether these devices encourage or discourage smoking. This study delves into the history of policymaking and institutions in three countries which have taken different approaches to the regulation of e-cigarettes. In the UK, the tradition of harm reduction through nicotine has helped form a response which has endorsed e-cigarettes, though not without considerable controversy. In contrast, the US has a cessation-only anti-tobacco agenda, and Australia has effectively banned e-cigarettes. This book argues that each country frames the long-term use of nicotine differently and prioritises the health of different groups within the population of smokers or non-smokers, set against a broad backdrop of national responses to addiction. By taking this comparative approach, the authors explore the relationship between history, evidence and policy in public health more widely.

With advancing technology and the digitization of the modern era, businesses are required to adopt the latest innovations computer science and information technology have to offer. The field of home healthcare must utilize the finest available operations management systems in order to remain relevant in a globalized world while also providing the best treatment possible to its patients. Transportation, Logistics, and Supply Chain Management in Home Healthcare: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference source that provides theoretical and empirical research on logistics management and transportation and scheduling routing and their applications in home healthcare and logistics. While highlighting topics such as hybrid energy, scheduling optimization, and forecasting techniques, this book is ideally designed for outpatient doctors and nurses, transportation professionals, logisticians, home healthcare managers, computer scientists, logistic engineers, health practitioners, academicians, researchers, and students.

Hospital funding plays an important role in strengthening healthcare and medical resources. Utilizing comprehensive costing systems to accommodate clinical and financial data leads to improved patient care both clinically and financially. Clinical Costing Techniques and Analysis in Modern Healthcare Systems provides innovative insights into the connections between statistical information and financial systems within clinical settings. The content within this publication delves into business intelligence, clinical decision making, and electronic health records. It is geared towards medical practitioners and professionals, hospital administrators, and researchers seeking valuable insights centered on clinical variations of healthcare data as well as the role of information systems in linking productivity and performance management.

In this well-documented book, Alain Enthoven develops the ideas of consumer choice and managed competition of alternative health care financing and delivery systems, as well as describing ways to improve quality and reduce the cost of health care. He demonstrates how these ideas could be applied in the American employment-based health insurance model, how similar ideas have been introduced in the British National Health Service; how these ideas have been applied in the Netherlands; and the need for integrated comprehensive care systems. This unique anthology traces the development of two important and related themes. Firstly, the 'output' of the health services industry has been produced by disaggregated physicians, nurses and other health professionals, hospitals, drugs and device companies that somehow combine to serve the patient. Progress in quality and the economy requires the services of these components to be integrated into coherent systems in which the incentives of all providers are aligned with the needs and wants of patients for quality affordable care. Secondly, the book argues that the framework that can provide such incentives, is an appropriately designed form of market competition among systems of care seeking to serve value-conscious patients. Public officials, scholars and policy analysts from developing countries will find here a set of ideas for how to improve incentives for greater value for money. Students of health economics, policy and organization, as well as journalists and public officials interested in the use of public policy to improve efficiency in health care systems, will also find much to interest them in this book.

Migration is now firmly embedded as a leading global policy issue of the twenty-first century. Whilst not a new phenomenon, it has altered significantly in recent decades, with changing demographics, geopolitics, conflict, climate change and patterns of global development shaping new types of migration. Against this evolving backdrop, this Handbook offers an authoritative overview of key debates underpinning migration and health in a contemporary global context. The first major handbook in this field, this Handbook of Migration and Health provides a comprehensive global overview of issues relating to migration and health. The Handbook is organised into six main sections: theories and models of migration; rights and deservingness; vulnerability and precarity; specific healthcare needs and priorities; healthcare provision; and transnational and diasporic networks. Chapters focus on a wide range of migrant groups including refugees, asylum seekers, trafficked people, international students, healthcare workers, and diasporic communities. Bringing together the contributions of 58 leading researchers and drawing on case studies and examples from across the globe, the Handbook is intended as a scholarly, yet accessible reference tool for researchers, students, and practitioners interested in the field of migration and health. Contributors include: S. Bacci, L. Baldassar, C. Bennouna, J. Botfield, E. Chase, J. Cook, E. Duffell, R. Evans, J. Gideon, K. Hall, A.-C. Hoyez, D. Ingleby, H. Jayaweera, M.-A. Karlsen, M. Kilke, R. Labonte, Y. Lu, S. Mayell, L. Manderson, M. McKee, J. McLaughlin, C. McMichael, L. Merla, S. Meyer, P. Mladovsky, L. Newman, C. Newman, T. Noori, L. Nunez Carrasco, A. Odone, D. Oksen, S. Oram, M. Ormond, G. Ottosdottir, C. Packer, A. Pharris, O. Razum, B. Rechel, A. Reeske, A. Reid, V. Runnels, A. Sandgren, R. Shadwick, D. Sime, J. Spallek, D.L. Spitzer, L. Stark, J.E. Suk, A. Tianbo Zhang, T. Tillmann, F. Thomas, K. Vasey, J. Vearey, G.A. Williams, R. Wilding, S.S. Willen, H. Zeeb, A. Zwi

Cost-benefit analysis is the only method of economic evaluation that can effectively indicate whether a health care treatment or intervention is worthwhile. In this thoroughly updated and revised second edition, Robert Brent expands the scope of the field by including the latest concepts and applications throughout all regions of the world. This book attempts to strengthen the link between cost-benefit analysis and the mainstream health care evaluation field, which is dominated by non-economists. The need to build a bridge between the two is more important than ever before, as the general understanding of cost-benefit analysis appears to have regressed.Case studies are used throughout to explain and illustrate the various methodologies being examined. In addition, the author now covers more of the statistical requirements that are necessary to understand and carry out health care evaluations, and follows an applied economics approach. Ultimately, he resolves a number of disputes and makes some new, but subtle, contributions by reinterpreting, correcting and extending existing work. The book covers the topic in an accessible manner, from the foundations to the frontiers of the field, and clearly explains all the necessary economic principles along the way. Cost-Benefit Analysis and Health Care Evaluations, Second Edition will be invaluable to students and researchers of health economics, public policy and health care policy, as well as policymakers and health care practitioners. It can also be used as a comprehensive introductory text by anyone with an interest in cost-benefit analysis. From this perspective, the new additional final chapter is particularly useful as it supplies a summary of CBA that highlights the main conclusions of the text in a single chapter. Contents: 1. Introduction to Health Care Evaluation 2. Cost Minimization and the Definition of 'Cost' 3. Types of Costs and their Measurement 4. External Costs 5. Social Cost of Taxation 6. Fundamentals of Cost-effectiveness Aanalysis 7. Further Issues of Cost-effectiveness Analysis 8. Fundamentals of Cost utility Analysis 9. Measuring Utilities in Cost utility Analysis 10. Cost-utility Analysis and Equity 11. Cost-benefit Analysis and the Human Capital Approach 12. Cost-benefit Analysis and Willingness to Pay 13. Cost-benefit Analysis and Equity 14. Methods for Measuring the Benefits of HIV/AIDS Interventions Index

Implementation of guidelines in the health system is a major undertaking, especially in developing countries. An important constraint in guideline development in developing countries is that the guideline recommendations must suit local conditions and must make use of available resources. This is a challenge because the health systems of developing countries have a high burden of disease and little resources; therefore, guidelines must rely on cost-effective healthcare interventions. The BACIS program study was initiated to address some of these challenges in the dissemination and utilization of maternal health guidelines. The BACIS program was piloted, and the results showed that the BACIS program could assist in improving compliance of nurses with the national maternity care guidelines. This is an impressive finding and step forward for maternal healthcare in developing countries. Developing Maternal Health Decision Support Systems in Developing Countries discusses public health aspects of the design and implementation of clinical decision support systems in developing country contexts. Specifically, it focuses largely on the design and evaluation of the BACIS program in South Africa. This is supplemented with a conversation on the possible future research directions in the BACIS program study along with the outlook for clinical decision support systems in developing country contexts in general. This book is ideal for e-health system designers and implementers, managers and policymakers in the area of e-health in developing countries, personnel from NPOs and donor agencies, government officials, IT consultants, medical professionals, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students who are interested in how decision support systems such as BACIS are being used to improve maternal health in developing countries.

Health Care Today in the United States details the complexities of health care in the United States and provides readers with up-to-date information on the state of health care, its challenges, and how to navigate the system. Sections cover patient populations, diverse cultures, legalities, the opioid epidemic, the impact of COVID-19, health care costs, insurance and the impact of technology on health care. Written for students seeking a health science degree, as well as health care professionals, nurses, medical students, and those in the field of public health, this book provides a comprehensive view of health care in the U.S.

Ethics of Inclusion captures fairness and social justice for all from an ethical perspective in our post-pandemic world. The book discusses inequality in Healthcare, Economics & Finance, Education, Digitalization, and the Environment, in order to envision economics of diversity and a transition to a more inclusive society. A wide-ranging approach addresses issues of inequality in access to innovations such as telemedicine and artificial intelligence, economic gains of robotics, and big data insights. A rising performance gap between the finance sector and the real economy opens in the post-COVID-19 era, with system-inherent inequality, given elevated inflation levels and disparate impacts of low interest rate regimes around the globe. Education offers social transfer hubs and inclusion potential for societal advancement and international development. The transition to a greener economy is addressed in an analysis of the Green New Deal and European Green Deal including the Sustainable Finance Taxonomy. The book sets out a hopeful agenda for equality and social justice to deliver a post-pandemic Renaissance.

In The Coronavirus Crisis and Its Teachings: Steps towards Multi-Resilience Roland Benedikter and Karim Fathi first describe the pluri-dimensional characteristics of the Coronavirus crisis. Then they draw the pillars for a more "multi-resilient" Post-Corona world including socio-political recommendations of how to generate it. The Coronavirus crisis proved to be a bundle crisis consisting of multiple, interconnected crisis dimensions. Before Corona, most concepts of a "resilient society" implied a rather isolated focus on only one crisis at a time. Future preparedness in the 21st century will require a multi- and transdisciplinary risk-management concept that the authors call "multi-resilience". "Multi-resilience" means to systematically enhance universal resilience competencies of societies, such as collective intelligence or overall responsiveness, being appliable to pluri-dimensional crisis contexts. If the Coronavirus crisis in retrospect will have contributed to implement multi-resilience, then it will ultimately have contributed to progress. This volume includes a Foreword by Jan Nederveen Pieterse and an Afterword by Manfred B. Steger.

With the growing use of new technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, intelligent systems can be used to manage large amounts of existing data in healthcare domains. Having more intelligent methods for accessing data allows medical professionals to more efficiently identify the best medical practices and more concrete solutions for diagnosing and treating a multitude of rare diseases. Intelligent Systems for Healthcare Management and Delivery provides relevant and advanced methodological, technological, and scientific approaches related to the application of sophisticated exploitation of AI, as well as providing insight into the technologies and intelligent applications that have received growing attention in recent years such as medical imaging, EMR systems, and drug development assistance. This publication fosters a scientific debate for new healthcare intelligent systems and sophisticated approaches for enhanced healthcare services and is ideally designed for medical professionals, hospital staff, rehabilitation specialists, medical educators, and researchers.

Scientific evidence from different countries around the globe shows that those with low or inadequate health-related knowledge and skills include all ages, social, and economic backgrounds. The consequences of this inadequacy simultaneously affect individuals, healthcare systems, and society in many ways, such as healthcare quality and cost. Research on health literacy can provide insight on how to improve the communication of health issues, raise awareness, and promote the lifelong learning of patients and healthcare professionals. Optimizing Health Literacy for Improved Clinical Practices examines the latest advances in providing and helping patients and medical professionals to understand basic health information and the services that are most appropriate. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as patient engagement, mobile health, and health communication, this book is geared towards medical professionals, hospital adminstrators, healthcare providers, academicians, and researchers in the field.

Protecting Patient Information: A Decision-Maker's Guide to Risk, Prevention, and Damage Control provides the concrete steps needed to tighten the information security of any healthcare IT system and reduce the risk of exposing patient health information (PHI) to the public. The book offers a systematic, 3-pronged approach for addressing the IT security deficits present in healthcare organizations of all sizes. Healthcare decision-makers are shown how to conduct an in-depth analysis of their organization's information risk level. After this assessment is complete, the book offers specific measures for lowering the risk of a data breach, taking into account federal and state regulations governing the use of patient data. Finally, the book outlines the steps necessary when an organization experiences a data breach, even when it has taken all the right precautions.