title: National health policy influence on Medicare home health.
abstract: National health policy regulates the delivery of Medicare home health services. These services have grown exponentially over the past several years. Current challenges to service delivery revolve around attempts to contain costs while ensuring quality of and access to care. To meet these challenges, providers must be aware of the societal and ideological influences on national health policies that impact service delivery. This article uses Wong's model of the progression of health care reform to address past health policy influences on Medicare home health delivery, investigate recent sociological trends for relevance to health policy, and propose changes based on current ideology.
authors.affiliation: University of South Florida, Tampa, Palm Harbor 34694, USA. vconley@coml.med.usf.edu
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Conley
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002017:Budgets / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003363:Cost Control; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000639:trends; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States