This article is illustrated with reference to health services in the Tokyo Prefecture. It seeks to describe the role of government in the organisation and provision of health services in Japan. It is based on experiences gained from a three-month placement at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Public Health in late 1994. Wherever possible the article identifies similarities and differe...

In South Africa the patient uses both the traditional healers and biomedical personnel's services out of need for the best healing therapy to fulfil his/ her health needs. Failure of one to yield the expected results leads to the use of the other. This shunting back and forth prompted the researcher to undertake research and formulated a model demonstrating how the traditional healers can be in...

This article highlights prominent issues concerning children's oral health and provides an overview of the structure, organization, and financing of dental services for children in the United States. The size, composition, characteristics, and distribution of the dental workforce and the arrangements that facilitate the delivery and financing of dental services are discussed. Features of the cu...

DEBATE CONSUMER-DIRECTED HEALTH CARE You won't hear many health experts claim that the American healthcare system is functioning perfectly in terms of core considerations such as cost, access, and quality. The question that arises with the advent of any new policy approach seeking to improve the system is obvious: Does the change represent a step forward or backward? of the University of Michig...

SETTING South African miners suffer the highest tuberculosis (TB) rates in the world. Current efforts to stem the epidemic are insufficient. Historical legacies and persistent disease burden demand innovative approaches to reshape health care delivery to better serve this population. OBJECTIVE To characterize social and behavioral health determinants for successful TB care delivery and treatm...

The Kaiser Permanente Southern California (Kaiser) health care system succeeded in improving hypertension control in a multiethnic population by adopting a series of changes in health care delivery. Data from the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) was used to assess blood pressure control from 2004 through 2012. Hypertension control increased overall from 54% to 86% durin...

Following changes to the Interim Federal Health (IFH) program in Canada in 2012, this study investigates health service providers' knowledge of the healthcare coverage for refugee claimants living in Quebec. An online questionnaire was completed by 1,772 staff and physicians from five hospitals and two primary care centres in Montreal. Low levels of knowledge and significant associations betwee...

This overview discusses articles published in this issue of the Health Care Financing Review, entitled "Access to Health Care Services in Rural Areas: Delivery and Financing Issues." These articles focus on the following topics: rural hospitals (including closures, the impact of Federal grants, network development, and costs), managed care in rural areas, telemedicine, and the delivery of menta...

health care system is organized to achieve more efficiency as well as developing public equity and providing access to the first, second and third levels of services. family physician is in the first line of the health care system; in other words, family physician is the health system’s goalkeeper. according to classification of health services, gaining access to specialized services becomes po...

BACKGROUND There is a paucity of knowledge on the cost of health care services in Ghana. This poses a challenge in the economic evaluation of programmes and inhibits policy makers in making decisions about allocation of resources to improve health care. This study analysed the overall cost of providing health services in selected primary health centres and how much of the cost is attributed to ...