title: The big hurt: Trauma system funding in today's health care environment.
abstract: Trauma systems provide effective care of the injured patient but require major financial costs in readiness and availability of the extensive trauma team and specialized equipment. Traditional billing and collection practices do not fully recoup these costs. Effective use of the standard billing system is vital to the stability of a trauma system; however, a system wide funding mechanism provides an optimal, stable foundation. Efforts to provide sustainable trauma system funding are ongoing. Numerous state initiatives have been successful in funding trauma systems but a universal solution has yet to be found.
authors.affiliation: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, USA. Docgeehan@aol.com
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Geehan
mesh_terms: D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics; D018578:Hospital-Physician Relations; D006801:Humans; D010350:Patient Credit and Collection / Q000458:organization & administration; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000191:economics; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D000078329:Workforce