Advertising and Hospital Referrals

According to some observers, the United States health care system is "in crisis," with many of the problems directly related to the cost of care (Congressional Budget Office, 1995, p. 4). For many years, health care has been a growing component in the federal budget. The Medicare and Medicaid programs are now major elements in federal and state expenditures. In addition, a number of public and private organizations have been created to monitor the quality of health care, to plan the allocation of health resources, and to foster efficiency in the provision of health care. The increasing costs associated with health care also are major concerns of private industry in the United States, which funds in part health care for tens of millions of Americans.

Hospitals frequently take the brunt of efforts to reform the health care system. In response, hospitals across the country are seeking to develop new strategies and tactics that will allow the institutions to remain viable ent

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liferating health care alternatives all have contributed to intensified competitive activity. Partly as a consequence of this escalating competition, health care organizations have increasingly turned to advertising to enhance their position in the marketplace. Provider behavior, technology cost-shifting, and reimbursement systems are among the major factors that drive costs in the American health care system (Levanthal, 1995, p. 49). Between 1965 and 1970 sharp rises occurred in hospital staffing, wages, and purchases of new equipment and supplies (Berman, 1988, p. 35). Doctors' fees rose rapidly and physicians enriched the treatment of many patients far beyond what was medically appropriate. The growth in medical care reflected the willingness of people and institutions to pay for such services at increasing levels. Such willingness was expressed in large-scale government entitlement programs, in increased health-care fringe benefits gained by labor in collective bargaining, and in out-of-pocket expenditures for health insurance firms and individual health care consumers. Some critics of the American health care funding system contend that Americans have gotten more tests, seen more physicians, spent more time in hospital
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Approximate Word count = 9338
Approximate Pages = 37 (250 words per page)

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