| health care reform | Innovation and improvement of the health care system by reappraisal, amendment of services, and removal of faults and abuses in providing and distributing health services to patients. It includes a re-alignment of health services and health insurance to maximum demographic elements (the unemployed, indigent, uninsured, elderly, inner cities, rural areas) with reference to coverage, hospitalization, pricing and cost containment, insurers' and employers' costs, pre-existing medical conditions, prescribed drugs, equipment, and services. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| health care sector | Economic sector concerned with the provision, distribution, and consumption of health care services and related products. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health care surveys | Statistical measures of utilization and other aspects of the provision of health care services including hospitalization and ambulatory care. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health centre | An institution or group of institutions providing all types of medical care and preventive services to a population. (05 Mar 2000) |
| health education | Education that increases the awareness and favourably influences the attitudes and knowledge relating to the improvement of health on a personal or community basis. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health education, dental | Education which increases the awareness and favourably influences the attitudes and knowledge relating to the improvement of dental health on a personal or community basis. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health expenditures | The amounts spent by individuals, groups, nations, or private or public organizations for total health care and/or its various components. These amounts may or may not be equivalent to the actual costs (health care costs) and may or may not be shared among the patient, insurers, and/or employers. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health facilities | Institutions which provide medical or health-related services. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health facilities, proprietary | Health care institutions operated by private groups or corporations for a profit. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health fairs | Community health education events focused on prevention of disease and promotion of health through audiovisual exhibits. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health food | A non-medical term defined by the lay public as a food that has little or no preservatives, which has not undergone major processing, enrichment or refinement and which may be grown without pesticides. Health foods have been attributed with the ability to prevent the development of diseases, slow the aging process, and prolong life. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health indicator | Variable, susceptible to direct measurement, that reflects the state of health of persons in a community. (05 Mar 2000) |
| health maintenance organization | A comprehensive prepaid system of health care with emphasis on the prevention and early detection of disease, and continuity of care.HMOs may be nonprofit or profit-making ventures, and along with PPOs and managed care plans have come to define the U.S. Health care scene. HMOs generally offer a package of services; however, the choice of physician is frequently limited to those working within the HMO. (05 Mar 2000) |
| health maintenance organizations | Organised systems for providing comprehensive prepaid health care that have five basic attributes: 1) provide care in a defined geographic area; 2) provide or ensure delivery of an agreed-upon set of basic and supplemental health maintenance and treatment services; 3) provide care to a voluntarily enrolled group of persons; 4) require their enrollees to use the services of designated providers; and 5) receive reimbursement through a predetermined, fixed, periodic prepayment made by the enrollee without regard to the degree of services provided. (12 Dec 1998) |
| health manpower | The availability of health personnel. It includes the demand and recruitment of both professional and allied health personnel, their present and future supply and distribution, and their assignment and utilization. (12 Dec 1998) |