We investigate whether people enrolled into voluntary health insurance (VHI) substitute public consumption with private (opt out) or just enlarge their private consumption, without reducing reliance upon public provisions (top up). We study the case of Italy, where a mixed insurance system is in place. To this purpose, we specify a joint model for public and private specialist visits counts, an...

As in the rest of Europe, the supply of maternity hospitals has progressively decreased over the past few decades in France. An understanding of user choice criteria is important to help health planners reorganize obstetrical services and to predict changes in utilization patterns in response to supply changes. The objectives were to understand the criteria that women use to select their matern...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to review the history of health technology assessment (HTA) in Italy. METHODS Founded in 1978, the Italian National Health Service (NHS) has been strongly regionalized mainly after a constitutional reform, which started a devolution process. HTA started in the 1980s at the National Institute of Health and in a few University Hospitals, with a focus on big ...

and Accountability Act (HIPAA) directed the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to adopt uniform national standards to protect the confidentiality of health information. HIPAA requires hospitals and other covered entities to take steps to safeguard against the misuse of individually identifiable health information and to limit the sharing of this information. Health care consumers ar...

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to evaluate an interhospital collaborative approach to improve 7-day post-discharge follow-up (7dFU) rates and reduce 30-day readmissions in heart failure (HF) patients. BACKGROUND Early post-discharge follow-up after HF hospitalization is associated with lower 30-day readmission rates. METHODS Observational analyses of Medicare HF patients dischar...

• In Romania, the provision of multiple forest ecosystem services is regulated since decades. De jure , mandatory management planning uses a functionally-integrated approach. Natura 2000 adopts general precautionary approach, at expenses owners. The certification participatory approaches in identification high conservation values. regulatory approach needs adaptations meant to reduce gap betwee...

One of the animating beliefs of British health service reformers in the first half of the twentieth century was that delivery would improve if greater co-ordination was imposed over disparate providers. The fundamental divisions were between the voluntary, public and private sectors. Voluntary provision predominantly meant acute care hospitals, but also included a range of other therapeutic and...