General Healthcare Industry

Attending a health fair is like sampling a huge buffet. You can fill your tote bag with giveaways, get a free chair massage or have a chiropractor evaluate your back health. Health fairs provide a...

Medical records are vital to a patient's health history and treatment. Used by doctors, hospitals and health care facilities, it is important to know what is contained in your medical records....

Medical costs are a major problem for Americans. A study published in 2009 in the American Journal of Medicine, in fact, found that 62 percent of bankruptcies filed in 2007 related to medical...

Several U.S. colleges require students to demonstrate proof of health insurance. Students without insurance are unable to enroll in classes. The main insurance companies in the United States...

Home health aides care for disabled and/or elderly people in their homes, helping them with feeding, toileting, dressing, bathing and other activities of daily living. Many families hire home...

Many individuals with or without health insurance coverage do not seek care even when they see a need. Identifying barriers to health care is important because of the negative effects of...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, better known as HIPAA, was enacted in recognition of the increasing use of electronic record keeping, which can make personal and...

Ambulatory health care centers provide a wide range of health services. These include services for individuals who are not admitted to a hospital. The range of services can include those provided...

Paperwork constitutes up to 40 percent of medical costs, according to the Medical Systems Development Corp. Implementing an EMR system in the U.S. health care industry could cut health care costs...

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The HIPAA privacy act prevents medical facilities from distributing patient information for anything except medical purposes....

Government authorities, policy experts and academic faculty have been tracking health care trends for a variety of topics for decades. Thanks to the work of foundations, universities, think tanks,...

Health care reform has taken center stage as the government is desperately looking for solutions to ballooning health care costs and a growing uninsured population. While no-one can predict...

Health care industry statistics show that it is the biggest sector in the U.S., including government-funded programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Health care market information can be used by...

The Health Insurance and Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) was created to protect people and their private information. The law grew out of concern that individual's health information was...

Over 50 years ago, informed health care providers, along with the development of new medicines and vaccines, helped improve a patient's chance of survival. In prior centuries, nuns provided...

A citizen can learn the latest health news by connecting to a technology service provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. The National Institute of Health takes advantage of modern...

Identifying trends in health care is easy because there are numerous private and public organizations that do precisely that. One example is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The...

Single-payer health insurance provides and pays for universal or near-universal health care for a country's population. Under this public service, the government provides health insurance instead...

Finding a primary care physician who participates in Mass Health, the public health insurance program for the commonwealth of Massachusetts, is very easy. Government resources and local community...

In 1996, Congress passed into law the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The privacy rule section of HIPAA provides strict protection of the use and disclosure of a...

Some patients' rights in the United States are mandated by state and federal law, and some are part of an individual institution's policies. Also influential on the health care system is the...

At a time when healthcare costs have become so high that they can plunge people into bankruptcy, many people look to government to assist, or even completely cover, medical costs. Whether free...

The ongoing efforts by Congress to overhaul the nation's health care system have led many to wonder how to define the key benchmarks of access and quality. What do experts mean when they speak...

Health care informatics uses technology, such as computers and networking, and multidisciplinary health sciences, such as biomedical and pharmacy, to improve patient care. Informatics organizes...

Health care system architects and technology proponents see a natural adoption of information technology with health care information. However, the health care industry has been one of the slowest...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was a law enacted by Congress in 1996 and went into effect beginning 2003. This law and its amendments provide for a number of...

Sometimes we can put too much responsibility into the hands of a doctor; assuming they will have all the answers and know exactly what to do. This is a foolish approach because doctors aren’t...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) helped improve the continuity of health insurance for covered workers. It also established strong privacy protection...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) led to the establishment of strong safeguards to protect the privacy of patient health information. The privacy rule only...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) contains strict standards regarding the release of an individual's health information without authorization. This act was...

The scope of health economics extends beyond merely examining the allocation of health care resources to meet societal health needs. This specialty also concerns itself with health in general and...

As health care systems become increasingly complicated, it can be difficult for patients and their families to ensure that the best possible care is being provided. A patient advocate may be the...

The American Heart Association (AHA) has its own specific priorities with regard to health care in the U.S. In addition, the organization sponsors various websites and groups in its efforts to...

Patient rights are always under heavy scrutiny in the health care field, and what constitutes abandonment is always being questioned. However, there are clear guidelines that must be followed and...

Walk-in health clinics can be a cost-effective choice when it comes to health care. However, they lack the services you can get from a doctor or hospital visit.

Finding the right doctor can be a lot more difficult than finding the right pair of shoes. It can be time-consuming, and it can range from asking other people for personal recommendations to doing...

Becoming a mental health nurse--or, as health care authorities call them, psychiatric-mental health nurses--is a challenging process that requires time, energy and dedication. There are two types...

According to PCI Health Training Center, a patient care technician works with site doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, providing direct care to patients in many health care...

School nurses identify, address, and follow up on actual or potential health issues that interfere with the students' academic success. As part of her assessment, the school nurse carries out...

According to OSHA.gov, an occupational nurse is a registered nurse who independently observes and assesses the worker's health status with respect to job tasks and hazards.

Economics is all about how societies allocate scarce resources to meet societal needs. In an era of rising medical costs and concerns about how to reform health care systems to tame costs and...

When Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1966 (HIPAA), it created a health-care coat of many colors, containing seemingly disparate elements that impact your...

The factors affecting health care are varied and far-reaching. As health care around the world is examined, access and use are gaining more attention. If you have health problems -- chronic or...

The Privacy Act of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects sensitive medical and health information for all patients.

According to the Department of Labor, occupational health nurses hold an RN license or higher and are employed by companies, mostly industrial, to oversee the health of their employees. They also...

The HIPAA Privacy Rule took effect in 2003. It has a number of functions, one of which is to control the release of medical records. Records can only be released to certain people under certain...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that seven of the 20 fastest-growing occupations are in health care. The industry was expected to generate 3 million new jobs from 2006 through...

Global health policies have major impacts on social conditions. Poor policies can lead to poor health, which leads to poor social conditions and ultimately worse health. This cyclical relationship...

France's health care system has been ranked No. 1 in the world by the World Health Organization, and some believe that the U.S., which ranked No. 37, should follow France's lead.

Community health clinics are beneficial because they service less-fortunate residents of the city. With rising unemployment and health care costs, these residents need affordable, high-quality care.