Healthspeak : a complete dictionary of America's healthcare system

Author / Creator

Freudenheim, Ellen

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Summary

"HealthSpeak: A Complete Dictionary of America's Health Care System helps laypeople and professionals alike understand the fast-changing vocabulary of health care by defining complex technical term...

"HealthSpeak: A Complete Dictionary of America's Health Care System helps laypeople and professionals alike understand the fast-changing vocabulary of health care by defining complex technical terminology drawn from over a dozen specialized fields. While dictionaries of clinical terms abound, HealthSpeak is unique in offering a single-volume reference to a multitude of terms used in medicine, public health, health law, economics and government." "Providing the reader with explanations of over 2,000 nonclinical terms, covering issues as wide-ranging as euthanasia and public health, and industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals and managed care, HealthSpeak includes entries such as the following: APACHE: an acronym referring to a system used in intensive-care units of hospitals to measure a patient's risk of dying based on age and physiological status; Code creep: a legal but ethically dubious practice by which health care providers try to fit their patients into those categories of illness that are the most highly reimbursed; Dumping: the transferring of patients from one health care facility to another (usually a public hospital) because they are uninsured; Physician Hospital Organization (PHO): a joint venture undertaken by a hospital and its medical staff for the main purpose of contracting with managed care organizations, insurers and self-funded employees; Polypharmacy: the use of multiple prescriptions and over-the-counter medications, especially by older people with multiple health problems; Tax cap: the limitation on the tax deductibility of health insurance premiums; and Tertiary care: medical care for rare, complicated or severe conditions that can be provided only by highly specialized doctors, usually with the use of sophisticated techniques and technology." "HealthSpeak elucidates the vocabulary of a complex and fast-changing health care system. It will be of great use to health care consumers, businesspeople and professionals concerned with the health care sector, students and journalists."--BOOK JACKET.

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