An argument for the integration of healthcare management with public health practice.

a s the U.S. healthcare system anticipates the requirements of legislated healthcare reform, front and center is the challenge of improving the U.S. healthcare value equation—the need to improve the value received for the health dollar spent. As is often the case, the psychology of change is at play here, whereby humans turn to what they know best as a response. As many health system leaders face the uncharted waters of U.S. reform and related downturns in service utilization, pressured reimbursement levels, and restrictive access to markets, managers’ responses often return to the familiar calls to action: