Health Care Center

Today, more than 11 million American children lack health insurance and the number increases every year. America's Children is a comprehensive, easy-to-read analysis of the relationship between health insurance and access to care. The book addresses three broad questions: How is children's health care currently financed? Does insurance equal access to care? How should the nation address the health needs of this vulnerable population? Topics explored include: -- The changing role of Medicaid under managed care. -- State-initiated and private sector children's insurance programs. -- Specific effects of insurance status on the care children receive. -- The impact of chronic medical conditions and special health care needs. -- The status of "safety net" health providers: community health centers, children's hospitals, school-based health centers, and others. -- Private-sector, employer-based health insurance: the changing patterns of coverage and tax policy options to increase coverage.

Using the success of other industries as a model, this book promotes methodologies, indicators, and ideas that health care organizations can use to streamline their practices and maintain strong profit margins. Based on the core principles embodied in lean logistics-the systematic process of removing waste and inefficiency throughout the purchasing, supply, distribution, and business operations chain-Streamlining Health Care Operations shows health care leaders how to fundamentally restructure their organizations and effectively balance costs, quality, and patient access to excellent care. Written by Audie Lewis, a leader in the movement to improve the efficiency of health care organizations, this essential resource shows how to: Reward excellence for creative low-cost solutions Implement innovative approaches to patient access Create a customer-driven culture Educate buyers for long-term success Develop an objective economic evaluation model Excel at using review committees effectively Minimize the impact of past and future mistakes Do a total life-cycle analysis Use budget control mechanisms "New times demand new thinking, not cosmetic Band-Aids. Audie Lewis clearly has his finger on the pulse of the new economy and of today's health care industry. He is a true pioneer in his field and his ideas are innovative, principled and soundly pragmatic: they work." --Dr. Stephen R. Covey, best-selling author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and chairman, Covey Leadership Center "I recommend this thoughtful and innovative book to those who care about the American health care system-both in Washington, D.C. and around the country. As we continue to seek ways to improve theefficiency and quality of health care delivery in America, sometimes we look past the kinds of innovative approaches examined in Streamlining Health Care Operations. Audie Lewis's book is an important contribution to this debate." --The Honorable J.