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This book is a thorough, balanced, and insightful study of the present status and future direction of health care economics and its far-reaching ramifications. Health Economics provides exhaustive analyses of such major issues as cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness, quality enhancement, and technology assessment.
Part One presents a basic overview of cost analysis, production functions, and provider cost behavior. Part Two considers economic models of physicians and hospital behavior, and recent changes in methods for paying physicians. Part Three focuses on employee cost sharing, HMOs, gatekeepers to contain utilization, and the use of case managers in long-term care. Part four looks at equity, social welfare, and the unique problems of urban medical centers. Part Five focuses on consumer information, quality measurement, and health manpower policies for nonphysician providers. Cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis is reviewed in Part Six. The last part summarizes major future policy options and suggests a number of mixed strategies, including capitation. In short,
Health Economics provides policy makers, health care providers, and students with the analytical tools needed to effectively balance efficiency and quality.
List of contents
Cost Behavior and Cost FunctionsCost Inflation: Overtilled and Undertilled Fields
Cost Functions and Production Functions
Economic Models and Physician BehaviorEconomic Models of Physician and Hospital Behavior
Physician Payment Options for the 1990s
Cost Sharing, Managed Care, and Competition Health PlansCompetition Health Plans: Managed Care and the Use of Case Managers
Employers, Cost Sharing, and Cost Containment
Equity, Access, and the Urban Medical CenterAccess and the Uninsured
The Cost of Teaching Hospitals
Consumer Education, Service Quality, and Health ManpowerQuality Measurement, Consumer Information, and Value Shopping
Health Manpower Policies, Physician Extenders, and Nursing Education
Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Cost-BenefitCost-effectiveness and Cost-benefit Analysis
The Role of Technology Assessment
Benefit Evaluation: The Value of Life and Limb
Future Policy TrendsCapitation, Consolidation, and Universal Entitlement
About the author
STEVEN R. EASTAUGH is a Professor of Economics and Finance at the School of Business and Public Management, The George Washington University. The winner of numerous awards, he is the author of six books, including Health Care Finance and Health Care Economics (Auburn House, 1992) as well as more than sixty journal articles.
