Product Review

This book offers a framework for studying modern quality approaches, including more expansive definitions of quality in health care, patient safety, and the use of data-driven methods for monitoring quality performance. The text begins with a student-friendly introduction to the way that the central concerns in health law and policy -- cost, quality, access, and choice -- interact. The next chapters cover state and federal quality-control regulation, including professional licensure and discipline and Medicare and Medicaid provider certification for health care organizations. The book provides extensive material on liability, including both medical malpractice and the liability of health care organizations, and explores the impact of ERISA preemption on liability for quality failures. These chapters also address the duties of informed consent and confidentiality, including HIPAA, and the impact of nondiscrimination obligations as a matter of quality in health care. The book includes material on quality efforts within health care organizations, including their relationship with health care professionals through staff privileges, contracting, and employment.