title: Edgar J. Poth Memorial Lecture: lessons learned inside the beltway: one surgeon's encounters with health care policy.
abstract: Our health care system continues to undergo transformation in a context of extreme financial pressures. New models of care delivery and financing challenge us to rethink our practices as individual surgeons and as system participants. Understanding the fiscal realities of health care and how we are perceived by health care policy makers can help us to be meaningful participants in channeling reform to create better delivery systems for our patients. This article presents some background information about health care in America with a focus on government programs, and shares insights from my health care policy colleagues.
authors.affiliation: University of Central Florida College of Medicine, PO Box 160116, Orlando, FL 32816-0116, USA. kborman@mail.ucf.edu
authors.forename: Karen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Borman
mesh_terms: D013502:General Surgery; D006076:Government; D006291:Health Policy; D014481:United States