Semantic caches, originally proposed for client-server database systems, are being recently deployed to accelerate the serving of dynamic web content by transparently caching data on edge servers. Such caches require fast query containment tests to determine if a new query is contained in the results of cached queries. Query containment checking algorithms have been studied in the context of qu...

This report summarizes State legislated efforts to control rising hospital costs and the status of these efforts in May 1982. The abstract for each of 17 State programs summarizes key legislative features and operating aspects. The States included in this report are: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rho...

Methods This study was designed to assess and review current practice and policy in the Malaysia pharmaceutical procurement procedures of non-formulary medicines. This was a quantitative study and was conducted in a cross-sectional study design. A purposive sampling method was applied in the study sample selection. The targeted samples to be involved in the selection were the public healthcare ...

In this article, we review five health care cost-containment efforts from 1971 to the present and summarize key research findings on the effects of each on cost, quality, and access. These efforts include the Nixon Economic Stabilization Program (ESP), Carter-era hospital cost-containment efforts, Medicare hospital and physician payment, and State hospital ratesetting programs. The purpose of t...

209 Yet, disease staging is not without its disadvantages. Certain diseases cannot be staged.210 No actual statistical measures of resource consumption are utilized in categorizing patients.21 ' Disease staging also ignores concurrent conditions and patient-related variables which affect resource consumption.21 2 Disease staging may prove very useful in the refinement needed within the diagnost...

This article assesses the arguments and evidence concerning the likely effectiveness of four supply-side cost-containment measures. The health planning efforts of the 1970s, particularly certificate-of-need regulations, had very limited success in containing costs. The new and related tools of technology assessment and practice guidelines hold some promise for refining benefit packages, but the...

BACKGROUND In the decade after 1983, the annual growth rate of drug expenditure was about four times as high as that of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in Shanghai. In 1993 and 1994, a drug list policy and hospital revenue capping policy were introduced in Shanghai to contain drug expenditure. We studied the impact of these two policies, as a model for similar policies in other parts of...