Title: Outcomes assessment in health care reform: promise and
limitations. (Quality of Care and Health Reform:
Complementary or Conflicting)
Citation: American Journal of Law & Medicine, Spring-Summer 1994 20
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Subjects: Health care reform_Economic aspects
Medical care_Quality control
Medical care, Cost of_Research
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Abstract: Outcomes assessment should be encouraged as an effective means of controlling medical care costs and ensuring that patients receive proper medical care. Medicine has not given sufficient attention to comparing the costs and qualities of care for different treatments. Outcome assessment can determine when certain services are necessary, improve public information, assure that standards are met for malpractice avoidance and define the scope of care provided under medical plans. Outcome determination can be a vital part of health care reform.
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Full Text COPYRIGHT American Society of Law & Medicine Inc. 1994
If the fundamental goals of the health care reform effort are to ensure universal access to an acceptable quality of health care at an affordable cost, then the threshold question for reform is: What health care services should be provided in an efficient, equitable system?
Answering this question requires weighing a complex mix of medical and social policy factors, a process not attempted in this article. But the starting point for that process should be determining what health care services "work" and what they cost. Outcomes assessment holds considerable promise in finding answers to these subsidiary questions, because it is intended to assess the effectiveness of health care services, that is, what works and what does not...