This special report synthesizes the findings of a Health Care Financing Administration grant which allowed the author to analyze hospital finance in six foreign countries and in the United States. The author identified the principal problems facing hospital owners, carriers, and governments in the United States, and he conducted lengthy field work abroad to learn how each country dealt with the...

challenges to physicians – those with specific business interests as well as those whose sole focus is patient care. Understanding the law and knowing which, if any, of the many Stark exceptions apply to your arrangement is essential. Part I of this series explained the purpose of the Stark statute, how it differs from the anti-kickback statute and how you can determine whether it applies to ...

BACKGROUND Stroke may lead to several health problems, but positive effects can be promoted by learning to perform physical therapy techniques correctly. OBJECTIVE To compare two different types of observational practice (video instructions and demonstration by a physical therapist) during the use of incentive spirometry (IS). METHOD A total of 20 patients with diagnosis of stroke and 20 he...

We allocate agents to three kinds of hierarchical positions: top, medium, and low. No monetary transfers are allowed. We solve for the incentive-compatible (IC) mechanisms that maximize a family of weighted social welfares that includes utilitarian and Rawlsian welfares. When the market is tough (all agents bear positive risk of obtaining a low position in any IC and feasible mechanism), then t...

BACKGROUND Fentanyl-induced cough (FIC) has a reported incidence of 13-65% on induction of anesthesia. Incentive spirometry (IS) creates forceful inspiration, while stretching pulmonary receptors. We postulated that spirometry just before the fentanyl (F) bolus would decrease the incidence and severity of FIC. METHODS This study enrolled 200 patients aged 18-60 years and with American Society...

Pavlovian cues for rewards become endowed with incentive salience, guiding "wanting" to their learned reward. Usually, cues are "wanted" only if their rewards have ever been "liked," but here we show that mesocorticolimbic systems can recompute "wanting" de novo by integrating novel physiological signals with a cue's preexisting associations to an outcome that lacked hedonic value. That is, a c...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate inspiratory volume in patients undergoing cardiac surgery and to determine the effects that incentive spirometry (IS) and the breath stacking (BS) technique have on the recovery of FVC in such patients. METHODS A prospective, controlled, randomized clinical trial involving 35 patients undergoing cardiac surgery at the Hospital de Força Aérea do Galeão (HFAG, Galeão Air F...

Background The dearth of health workers in rural settings in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and other developing countries limits healthcare access and outcomes. In evaluating non-wage financial incentive packages as a potential policy option to attract health workers to rural settings, understanding the expected costs and effects of the various programs ex antecan assist policy-makers ...