QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:
Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (6) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jost, T. S. Articles by McHale, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation

The British Health Care Reforms, the American Health Care Revolution, and Purchaser/Provider Contracts

David Hughes and Lesley Griffiths
University of Wales, Swansea

Jean McHale
University of Manchester

The health care systems of the United States and the United Kingdom are changing rapidly. After the Thatcher government’s 1989 white paper, the formerly unified British National Health Service (NHS) was split into purchaser and provider sides, with the NHS District Health Authorities becoming purchasers, and the NHS hospitals, now reconstructed as independent NHS trusts, becoming providers. The U.S. health care system, driven by market forces rather than government fiat, has been moving rapidly toward integration, with increasingly formalized purchaser and provider relationships. Contracts are found at the purchaser/provider interface in both systems. We reviewed American and British purchaser/provider contracts. The contracts address similar issues but often take disparate approaches. These dissimilarities illuminate the profound, continuing differences between the two systems. They also, however, offer possibilities to transfer contracting "technology" between the two contracting cultures.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. Wolff Interactions between Mental Health and Law Enforcement Systems: Problems and Prospects for Cooperation Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law, January 1, 1998; 23(1): 133 - 174. [Abstract] [PDF]