Top developments in health care: a watershed year.
Regulations, reimbursement battles, collaboration efforts, financial difficulties and the reform process all helped make 1991 a watershed year for health care issues--and an eventful one for executives. News media attention to health care policy, financing and delivery issues was intense: television, radio and print coverage focused on overcrowded emergency departments, uninsured pregnant women with no access to obstetrical care, employers demanding cost-efficient care and the pluses and minuses of foreign health care systems. The close of 1991 left hospital executives dealing with the effects of issues like the Medicare capital payment fold-in, physician payment reform, hospitals' geographic reclassification and the push for national health care reform. Below are brief summaries of some of the year's top issues.
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D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000517:prevention & control; D000573:American Hospital Association; D002201:Capital Expenditures / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004777:Environment; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans; D008484:Medicaid / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006278:Medicare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D015895:Relative Value Scales; D013660:Taxes / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States