This Issue Brief, prepared for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), examines contracts between managed care organizations (MCOs) and community-based providers of mental illness and addiction disorder treatment and prevention services (MI/AD providers). Building upon initial research published in 1997, this brief explores in depth one of the most hidden aspects...

Lack of access to quality reproductive health services is the main contributor to the high maternal mortality and morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This is partly due to a shortage of qualified and experienced health care providers. However conscientious objection amongst the available few is a hitherto undocumented potential factor influencing access to health care in SSA. Provision of ce...

Background Although skilled birth care contributes significantly to the prevention of maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality, utilization of such care is poor in mid- and far-western Nepal. This study explored the perceptions of service users and providers regarding barriers to skilled birth care. Design We conducted 24 focus group discussions, 12 each with service users and service provi...

We suggest better methods for monitoring the diagnostic and treatment services of health care providers. In particular, we examine the construction and use of industrial quality control methods as applied to the health care providers in both the prevention and cure for infectious diseases and the quality performance of health care providers especially in the area of acute care. We suggest imple...

INTRODUCTION Health systems face challenges of improving access to health services due to rising health care costs. Innovative services such as day surgery would improve service delivery. Day surgery is a concept where patients are admitted for surgical procedures and discharged the same day. Though used widely in developed countries due to its advantages, utilization in developing countries ha...

A recent editorial by Naoki Ikegami has proposed three key lessons from Japan’s experience of achieving virtually universal coverage with primary healthcare services: the need to integrate the existing providers of primary healthcare services into the organised health system; the need to limit government commitments to finance hospital services and the need to empower providers of primary healt...

in 2014, a series of reforms, called as the health sector evolution plan (hsep), was launched in the health system of iran in a stepwise process. hsep was mainly based on the fifth 5-year health development national strategies (2011-2016). it included different interventions to: increase population coverage of basic health insurance, increase quality of care in the ministry of health and medica...

introduction: equitable access to a basic set of health services at minimum quality and   affordable price is the right of every citizen and in all countries the governments have the duty to deliver these services to the population. international trade in health services influences the balance between equitable distribution of these services, creating incentives to improve the efficiency of hea...

Long-term care services provided by paid, regulated providers are an important component of personal health care spending in the United States. This report presents the most current national descriptive results from the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (NSLTCP), which is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Data pr...

There is increasing concern about the extent to which narrow-network plans, generally defined as those including fewer than 25 percent of providers in a given health insurance market, affect consumers' choice of and access to specialty providers-particularly in mental health care. Using data for 2016 from 531 unique provider networks in the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces, we evaluated how net...