TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - The American Health-Care System: Structure and Function A1 - Mays, Glen P. A1 - Scuthfield, F. Douglas A2 - Wallace, Robert B. Y1 - 2017 N1 - T2 - Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health and Preventive Medicine, 15e AB - This chapter examines the mechanisms through which health services are organized, financed, and delivered in the United States. Collectively, these mechanisms function as a complex and adaptive system in which purchasers, providers, consumers, and regulators of health services interact in ways that are not always coordinated or expected. These actors and their actions evolve over time in response to each other and to changes in their external environment, including changes in medical knowledge and technology, changes in the political and economic climate, changes in social norms and values, and changes in population health and disease processes. Understanding the major actors within the nation's health system and the ways in which they interact provides a basis for managing and improving the performance of the system in terms of the accessibility, quality, and cost of health services. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Medical CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/29 UR - accessbiomedicalscience.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1141962129 ER -