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eBook/Digital Version available from:

Web Site

Score: 96

Understanding Health Policy: A Clinical Approach, 9th Edition

Doody's Core Title (2024 Edition)

Score(s):		2.5 (Health Sciences - Health Policy)

ISBN: 978-1-265-90502-6, 247 pages, Soft Cover
ISBN-10: 1-265-90502-9

2024

Edition:

9th

Author:

Bodenheimer, Thomas, MD; Grumbach, Kevin, MD; Willard-Grace, Rachel, MPH

Specialties:

Health Policy , Primary Care

Publisher:

McGraw Hill

1325 Avenue of Americas, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10019

UNITED STATES

P: 800-338-3987 F: 800-953-8691

http://www.mhprofessional.com/medical

List Price:

$45.00

Brandon/Hill:

A version of this title appeared on the final Brandon/Hill list (2003/2004).

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Citation

Review

Questionnaire

At A Glance

One of the most popular resources of its kind, Understanding Health Policy: A Clinical Approach provides everything you need to master the U.S. health care system's nuances and complexities.

Written by practicing primary care physicians who are experts in health care policy, this comprehensive guide covers the entire scope of the U.S. health care system and draws on lessons from systems in other nations. New content in this fully updated edition includes deeper coverage of:

Cost and financing issues, with an emphasis on how it impacts the U.S. economy;
Public health systems, including a discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic...s impact on health policy and delivery;
Social determinants of health and disparities; Professional burnout and its impact on health care delivery;
The Affordable Care Act, Accountable Care Organizations, and system consolidation.

Packed with clinical vignettes highlighting key policy issues and clarifying difficult concepts, Understanding Health Policy weaves key principles, descriptions, and concrete examples into chapters that make vital health policy issues interesting and understandable.

Whether you're a student, medical practitioner, or public policy professional, you will come away with a clearer, more systematic way of thinking about our health care system, its biggest challenges, and the most effective ways of making it better for everyone.

Learn more and order here.

Reviewer:	Rick Kellerman, MD (University of Kansas School of Medicine - Wichita)

Description
This book is a classic text that explains how the U.S. health care system works and does not work. It includes discussions about health equity, medical ethics, rationing, medical education, the "business" of medicine, and health reform.

Purpose
The authors' purpose is to improve understanding of the health care system so that we can better work to change what needs to be changed. They provide understandable terminology in an organized format to do so and point out the successes as well as failings of the U.S. approach to providing health care. The authors conclude that there are no "magic bullets" to solving the myriad of problems in the U.S. health care delivery system. They recognize that a positive change in one measure may have a negative downstream effect on another measure. For example, improved access may result in increased costs. The book has a worthy purpose, and the authors do a masterful job of explaining a complex and convoluted system in comprehensible terms.

Audience
The primary audience of the book is students and health care professionals including physicians, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, social workers, and public health and community health workers. Anyone working in the health care system would benefit from reading this book. Additionally, anyone who receives care in the system and is interested or confused by the system would benefit. The only group who may not benefit from this book are university professors of health policy and they might still learn something - how to explain the almost incomprehensible U.S. health care system to their students in accessible terms. The book meets the needs of its intended audience. The authors are recognized national experts on health policy and the health care delivery system who are also clinicians who have tried to provide care to patients and help them navigate a perplexing system.

Features
In five major sections, the book expertly covers the organization, financing and payment, resource allocation, political economy, and cost, quality, and value of the US health care system. The best aspect of this book is that it explains a complex system in simplified and understandable terms. The writing is clear. The sequencing of the material presented is nicely staged and organized. For example, the brief explanations of the health care systems in Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, and Japan are simple and easy to read. There are an immense number of details the book does not cover, but its 30,000-foot easy-to-understand non-technical explanations provide an overview that is welcome. The book uses tables, graphs and figures that are useful. The book also uses brief clinical vignettes to explain basic concepts. For example, vignettes illustrate how physicians are paid through fee-for-service, payment per episode of illness, capitation, pay-for-performance, and care coordination for their services. The book discusses advantages and disadvantages of paying physician through a straight salary. The concluding chapter is a series of questions that can be used to assess understanding of the material and stimulate group discussion. A discussion of the motivations, ethics and workability of direct primary care would be value added. The book is available in softcover and e-format.

Assessment
This is a core title that students in all health care disciplines and practicing health care professionals should read. Compared to the eighth edition (2020), this edition offers more coverage on the effect of health care spending on the national economy, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health policy, social determinants of health and health care inequality, professional burnout and the evolution of the Affordable Care Act, Accountable Care Organizations and system consolidation.