Health Policy Issues or Marketing Strategy

Health Policy Issues: An Economic Perspective

Author: Paul Feldstein

Like its predecessors, the third edition of Health Policy Issues: An Economic Perspective will help readers understand the issues underlying the politics and economics of health services. This policy primer uses an economic approach to explain the forces pressing for change in healthcare, as well as why the health system has evolved to its current state.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Robert McLean, PhD (Creighton Univ School of Pharmacy & Allied Health Professions)
Description: This book is a discussion of 30 topics in health policy from the standpoint of economics. The author's approach to the solution of policy problems is that market forces should be allowed free rein, and that economically efficient outcomes are best. The book is accessible to the student of health policy or health administration who understands economics at an introductory or intermediate level.
Purpose: The principal purpose is to provide supplemental reading on the economic approach to health policy to students in health policy, health administration, and health economics courses. A secondary purpose is to demonstrate the power of economic analysis. The author is very successful in achieving both of these purposes.
Audience: The principal audience is the student of health policy or health administration. Only a modest background in economics is necessary to read the book. Advanced students and professionals will not find it to be of much use. It is not a useful guide to the research literature, and the most frequent reference is to the author's own textbook on health economics.
Features: The author coves 30 topics, each in a separate chapter. Among the topics covered are, How Much Should Be Spent on Medical Care? How Much Health Insurance Should Everyone Have? and Can Price Controls Limit Expenditure Increases? Current health policy discussions are quite thorough. The level of exposition is appropriate to someone with limited background in health policy and only an introductory understanding of economics.
Assessment: This would be an excellent source of supplemental reading for a beginning course in health policy or health economics. No comparable volume is available.

Booknews

Helps non-specialists understand issues related to the politics and economics of health services. Chapters on 25 key issues contain short discussions on each subject from an economic perspective emphasizing markets, plus discussion questions. Subjects include managed care competition and legislation, barriers to and benefits of integration, financing long-term care, the role of government in medical care, and national health insurance. This second edition is updated to reflect current research findings and analysis. It contains two new chapters on the trend toward group practice, and physician surplus. The author is a professor of health care management at Graduate School of Management at UC-Irvine. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Rating

3 Stars from Doody

Table of Contents:

	List of Figures
	List of Tables
	Preface
1	The Rise in Medical Expenditures	1
2	How Much Should We Spend on Medical Care?	12
3	Do More Medical Expenditures Produce Better Health?	24
4	In Whose Interest Does the Physician Act?	35
5	Rationing Medical Services	44
6	How Much Health Insura nce Should Everyone Have?	54
7	Why Are Those Who Most Need Health Insurance Least Able to Buy It?	64
8	Medicare and Medicaid	74
9	The New Medicare Physician Payment System	86
10	Physician Incomes	95
11	The Malpractice Crisis	106
12	Competition among Hospitals: Does It Raise or Lower Costs?	119
13	Vertically Integrated Health Care Organizations	131
14	Cost Shiftin g	140
15	Can Price Controls Limit Medical Expenditure Increases?	151
16	Managed Care Competition	161
17	American Competitiveness and Rising Health Costs	172
18	Why Is It So Difficult to Get into Medical School?	182
19	The Shortage of Nurses	193
20	The High Price of Prescription Drugs	204
21	Should Kidneys (and Other Organs) Be Bought and Sold?	217
22	The Role of Government in Medical Care	227
23	Medical Research, Medical Education, Alcohol Consumption, and Pollution: Who Should Pay?	237
24	The Canadian Health Care System	246
25	Employer-Mandated National Health Insurance	257
26	National Health Insurance: Which Approach and Why?	267
27	Financing Long-Term Care	276
28	The Politics of Health Care Reform	289
	Appendix: Discussion Questions	300
	Index	313
	About the Author	321

Books about marketing: The Age Curve or Team Building

Marketing Strategy

Author: OC Ferrell

Thoroughly revised and updated, MARKETING STRATEGY, 4e continues with one primary goal: to teach students to think and act like marketers. Packed with cutting-edge coverage, current examples, new cases, and--for the first time--photographs, the fourth edition delivers a practical, straightforward approach to analyzing, planning, and implementing marketing strategies--helping students learn to develop a customer-oriented market strategy and market plan. Students sharpen their analytical and creative critical thinking skills as they learn the key concepts and tools of marketing strategy. The book's focus is based on the creative process involved in applying marketing knowledge to developing and implementing marketing strategy. It includes a comprehensive planning framework and myriad examples for effectively developing and executing marketing plans. The authors stress the integration and coordination of marketing decisions with other functional business decisions as the k ey to achieving an organization's overall mission and vision. They also emphasize the need for integrity in the strategic planning process. Reflecting the textbook's most aggressive case revision program to date, the fourth edition includes several all-new cases written specifically for the text, outside cases from Harvard Business School, and favorite cases that are updated and rewritten with a new focus, giving students the opportunity to work on a range of challenges from a variety of organizations, including USA Today, Gillette, Mattel, Blockbuster, Mobile ESPN, Best Buy, IKEA, G.I. Joe, TiVo, Adidas, and more. Countless examples of successful planning and implementation illustrate how firms face the challenges ofmarketing strategy in today's economy. Continuing in the text's signature student-friendly style, the fourth edition covers essential points without getting bogged down in industry jargon--all in a succinct 12 chapters.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	Marketing in the new economy	1
Ch. 2	Strategic marketing planning	22
Ch. 3	Situation analysis : collecting and analyzing marketing information	46
Ch. 4	SWOT analysis : a framework for developing marketing strategy	73
Ch. 5	Managing customer relationships	100
Ch. 6	Market segmentation, target marketing, and positioning	134
Ch. 7	Product strategy	160
Ch. 8	Pric ing strategy	187
Ch. 9	Distribution and supply chain management	214
Ch. 10	Integrated marketing communications	234
Ch. 11	Marketing implementation and control	257
Ch. 12	Marketing ethics and social responsibility	292
App. A	Marketing plan worksheets	547
App. B	Example marketing plans	561
	Endnotes	597
	Company and brand index	609
	Name index	617
	Subject index	619