OBJECTIVE Despite concerted policy efforts, a sizeable percentage of children lack health insurance coverage. This article examines the impact of the health care safety net and health care market structure on the use of health care by uninsured children. METHODS We used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey linked with data from multiple sources to analyze health care utilization among uninsur...

There is a paucity of research demonstrating how best to address inequalities in health and access to specialist care faced by rural disadvantaged populations in high HIV-prevalent settings in Sub Saharan Africa. Delivering equitable and cost-effective specialist clinical services in many parts of Africa is challenging, given human resource shortages, poor transport infrastructure and competing...

BACKGROUND In rural China, patients have free choice of health facilities for outpatient services. Comparison studies exploring the attributes of different health facilities can help identify optimal primary care service models. Using a representative sample of Chinese provinces, this study aimed to compare patients' rating of three primary care service models used by rural residents (public cl...

results the findings showed that the program was used in 380 health houses in 10 cities of iran. the total number of inhabitants covered by the program were 5555258, and 8245 of them were substance abusers. the cases were registered and their data were reported by the managers. the function of health houses, health centers, and district health centers were assessed by considering the number of ...

background rational prescription is a considerable issue which must be paid more attention to assess the behavior of prescribers. the aim of this study was to examine factors affecting family physicians’ drug prescribing.   methods we carried out a retrospective cross-sectional study in khuzestan province, iran in 2011. nine hundred eighty-six prescriptions of 421 family physicians (including 3...

primary vision care is recommended for infants and young children .childhood is critical time to prevent loss of vision and to optimize treatment so some eye disorders in children must be diagnosed at this time.to detect risk factors and visual abnormalities, the eye screening done by pediatricians and other primary care providers is necessary. the process that should occur at each child visit ...

A couple of years ago, Dr. Mason and myself, in collaboration with Home Based Primary Care and Care Coordination Home Telehealth Services at the Oklahoma City VA medical center began a journey to use technology to improve access to care for older Veterans living in rural Oklahoma. With funding from the VISN 16 Office of Telehealth and Office of Rural Health, we set out to evaluate the benefits ...

PRIMARY CARE IS A MAJOR FOCUS of health policy discussions in the United States today. In this paper we describe the primary care system established at a small rural Indian Health Service (IHS) hospital, the ZuniRamah Comprehensive Health Care Center, in Zuni, N. Mex. We offer this report as a feasibility study to encourage further evaluation and implementation of primary care in the IHS. The I...

OBJECTIVE We aim to explore the barriers to accessing primary care for socio-economically disadvantaged older people in rural areas. METHODS Using a community recruitment strategy, fifteen people over 65 years, living in a rural area, and receiving financial support were recruited for semi-structured interviews. Four focus groups were held with rural health professionals. Interviews and focus...