Sixteen years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed, workers with mental illness still face a disheartening choice: keep their health problems a secret at work, or risk being shunned, passed over, paid up to one-third less, or even fired, according to a new study conducted by the School of Health Management and Policy at the W.P. Carey School of Business.
Clashing cultural cues – rather than discriminatory doctors – could cause at least part of the medical care gap between black and white Americans, according to a recent study of patient adherence by Jonathan D. Ketcham, a professor of health management and policy at the W. P. Carey School of Business, and Karen E. Lutfey of the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts. Ketcham said that his results indicated "no evidence of a negative stereotype against black patients. In fact, it seemed to be only about communication – the physicians and patients disagreed about how adherent they were."
Thirteen years after then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s 1,000-page universal health-care plan met with derision, an increasing number of public policymakers are coming full circle, advocating mandatory enrollment for everyone and coverage regardless of age, income and pre-existing medical problems. Evidence of the apparent attitude adjustment is obvious in state legislatures, where proposed laws such as Massachusetts’ Health Care Trust, which would establish a universal, single-payer health plan for all Massachusetts residents, are being debated. Legislators’ willingness to embrace single-payer salvation reflects less a change of heart than a key realization: Statistics indicate universal health care is cheaper, in the long run, than the status quo. Arizona health policy experts gathered to discuss these issues at a "Faces of the Uninsured" conference recently in Phoenix.
Major obstacles must be overcome before crucial advances such as nationwide electronic medical records or gene-targeted drugs are available to most Americans, according to health communications professor Gary Kreps. So many of us are frustrated with the deficiencies of our health-care system that sooner or later, we’ll force a "modern revolution" from the bottom up, he predicts. Once the dust settles, a new health-care model will emerge with an increased focus on prevention and early detection of disease. But Kreps foresees other changes, too, including "a shift from a provider to a consumer revolution" that mandates much more home-based care, customer-friendly doctor’s offices and clinics, and a stronger emphasis on eliminating pain and discomfort.
When Thomas Donohue scans the American health-care landscape, he sees an opportunity. Despite the critics, regardless of the estimated 45 million in the nation without health-care coverage, no matter the annual double-digit cost increases, Donohue believes that — with hard work and some common business sense — a broad-based coalition can put health care on the path to positive change. We should no longer spend time worrying about what government is going to do about health care, says Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a recent address before the Transforming American Healthcare National Symposium sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business. “It is time for us to decide that there are lots of things we can do as institutions, as businesses, as universities, as communities, that will improve the system.”
Asthma sufferers in Maricopa County, Ariz., who are on private health insurance plans are more likely to visit hospital emergency rooms for treatment than those on public insurance plans. That’s one of the surprising findings in a new report, "Asthma in Maricopa County," by Arizona HealthQuery, a community health data system managed by the Center for Health Information and Research at the W. P. Carey School of Business. Professor Mary Rimsza said the finding came as something of a surprise to researchers.
