by Claude A. Frazier with F.K. Brown (1992)
The coal-company doctors of Appalachia fought the health hazards of the coal fields, arguably the most dangerous and diseased working environment of the modern world. Often the doctors were held accountable for evils that persisted despite their best efforts. Claude A. Frazier - a coal-camp doctor's son and a doctor himself - draws on the memories of health workers, miners, and their families to convey the horrific problems in the coal camps, the resourcefulness of the doctors and nurses, and the struggle to raise health standards in and around the mines. Doctor Frazier tells how, from the Civil War to World War II, Appalachian mountain folk were exploited in a feudal system ruled by the coal companies. The miners, always in debt to the company, paid for a doctor's services with a checkoff from wages.^ The company doctor, like the company store, school, and church, was a consequence of the poor transportation and poverty in the wild mountains and narrow valleys where King Coal reigned. Miners and Medicine recalls not only the coal-camp doctors who were incompetent but the many others who performed valiant service in conditions that seem impossible by today's standards - in tiny, polluted communities with no nearby hospital or pharmacy, precious few nurses, and nonexistent sanitary facilities. Often the miners' wives and children, whose stories are told here, went hungry in drafty, pest-ridden company housing, from which they were expelled if they had no family member working in the mine. Boys went to work as teen-agers until child-labor laws finally were enforced in the 1950s. Black lung shortened the lives of virtually all miners.^ Miners and Medicine relates participants' memories of how the company doctors competed with the grannies, yarb doctors, and patent-medicine men, ultimately bringing stable health care and community hospitals to northern Appalachia. Today the company towns have been abandoned or brought up to date, thanks in good part to the company doctors, as well as the United Mine Workers of America. This book will please those who want to savor the attitudes, mores, and spirit of earlier days in Appalachia. It also has appeal for those interested in labor studies, public health and occupational safety. and medical-benefit programs.
Philip D. Cooper, Karen M. Jones, John K. Wong
Alphabetical listing by authors of 617 articles published between 1979-1983. Intended for marketing and health care personnel. Entries give bibliographical information and annotation, as well as coded sequence number that indicates relevant marketing areas and health care settings. Coded health care marketing area and health care setting indexes.
Duane C. Abbey
"This book provides an overview of a wide range of healthcare payment systems. It compares cost-based systems, charge-based payment approaches, and contractually-based payment processes to fee-schedule payment systems and prospective payment systems. It covers claim adjustment and compliance as well as managed care contracts and various combinations of payment systems used by third-party administrators. Examples illustrate the processes used for capitated contract arrangements. The author also addresses various compliance issues, including statutory, contractual, and overpayment issues"--Provided by publisher.
Edward M. Spencer ... [et al
"This book begins by assessing the shortcomings of clinical ethics, business ethics, and professional ethics as a basis for solving problems that have emerged in health care delivery systems since the advent of managed care. Then the authors consider the meaning of the development of the HCO in our society as well as its present status. Finally, they describe the key elements for the successful implementation of a fully functioning health care organization ethics program and what it can mean to the patients and the community."--Jacket.
T. Kue Young
An analysis of health care among Indians in the central subarctic of Canada, principally Ontario and Manitoba. Based on an analysis of the interrelationships between health status, medical care, and social change, proposes a broad strategy for improving the health of native peoples in Canada.