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The Government has published proposals to set up two new structures ‐ one for the regulation of social services and one for independently provided health care. This article argues that a single regulator for all categories of health care, including that provided in social care settings, would be more cost‐effective. It proposes the creation of functionally ring‐fenced divisions of health care regulation, structured within and answerable to the proposed commissions for care standards.

This research paper aimed to study the legal structure of top-performing health governance systems and compare them with the Indonesian health social security system to identify the main differences and provide recommendations for Indonesian and other developing countries’ health policymakers and administrators.

Using formative research with a conceptual approach and statute approach as method in this study. Data was gathered using the document study technique, which studies various documents, especially legal documents related to health law, linked to legal purpose theories. Moreover, the World Health Organization ranking was considered to choose the two countries (France and Singapore) with a high social health security system for comparative analysis. All data collected has been analyzed using a qualitative and theoretical basis. Content analysis was performed by analyzing the legal documents, and the regulatory framework of all three countries was deeply analyzed to draw conclusions and recommendations.

Indonesia has specific laws to implement a social security system in the health sector. However, the lack of the best medical facilities and infrastructure and weak implementation of existing laws were identified as major reasons behind the poor health security system compared to comparative countries. Also, as a developing nation Indonesian Government face budgetary pressures and huge population challenges to meet required standards. Thus, the financing approaches used by Singapore and France may help developing countries meet these challenges effectively. Therefore, there is a dire need to strengthen the social health security system all over the country with amendments to laws and ensure the implementation of prevailing laws and regulations.

Providing understanding related to the social security health system in Indonesia along with a detailed description of the sound social health security system in France and Singapore will further provide an avenue for the researchers to critically analyze this line of study to devise some valuable suggestions further and to draw loopholes in the system.

A comparative approach for legal studies in the health sector is rare. So, this research advanced the social security health system-related literature and legal studies on the health sector by using this comparative approach to develop policy insights and future research directions, which will further help the field to grow.

To promote access to their services, health-care companies provide various communication channels to their customers (beneficiaries) to enable the receipt of requests, such as authorization for examinations, procedures and hospitalizations. Under the approach of innovation studies, the management of customer relationship channels for health-care companies is characterized as a knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS). The purpose of this study is presenting innovation as a strategy to increase customer service productivity, as well as the monitoring of the quality of the service, the generation of health information for beneficiaries and compliance with the regulation set by the Brazilian National Health Agency (ANS).

The study is characterized as an applied research, as it proposes solutions to problems faced by supplemental health-care companies using the strategy of action research, i.e. an independent, social research with an empirical basis.

The result of this study shows that a computerized health-care system can increase productivity by 21.96%, and it presents an innovative solution for health-care companies to guarantee the process of meeting the demands and requests of their beneficiaries, ensuring the compliance with ANS regulations.

These results can be replicated to other healthcare companies and contribute to those seeking innovation, increased productivity and quality improvements in their services.

This work was also motivated by the lack of lstudies in the areas of health-care companies in Brazil.

There is significant documentation of fraud and abuses of consumer privacy through telemarketing activities. This led to a proliferation of legislative efforts to protect consumer privacy rights in the USA. Two such federal laws, the Health Plan Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the Telemarketing and Consumer Protection Act of 1994 significantly improve consumer privacy protections. However, they have a negative impact on the legitimate research and customer outreach efforts of ethical firms. It is especially challenging for health care firms as personal health information is among the most highly guarded areas of privacy concern. This article describes key provisions of these laws as they relate to health care organizations. Two program examples show how one firm successfully balances effectively administering health plan operations that support customer‐focused initiatives while complying with consumer privacy regulations.

This paper aims to address the crucial interactions that a start-up enacts with actors from the public sphere in a context of medical technologies. The public actor commonly plays multiple roles, ranging from co-developers and financiers to large-scale users, which are all pivotal to the development and survival of the new venture. The paper investigates the possible “dark sides” of a start-up’s marriage with a public partner, departing from three specific roles the public sphere can assume in relation to a start-up: as a development partner, as a financer and as a customer.

The study builds on an in-depth empirical case study of a Swedish med-tech startup company.

The authors find the financing role to be least problematic, whereas the customer role is the most problematic in that it provides numerous barriers to the possible development and growth of a start-up firm striving to get new customers in a public setting. Examples of the most prominent barriers found are regulations, complex decision-making processes and assessment elements of med-tech products that are outside the control of the startup firm, hence issues that cannot be handled within inter-organizational relationships.

The study builds on 27 in-depth interviews, which were undertaken during 2005-2013, thus contributing detailed data about a start-up’s many and crucial interactions with different public actors. Departing from three different roles, a public partner can adopt in relation to a start-up, (development, co-financer and customer) provides results with managerial implications for start-up’s and policy implications for health-care policy.

After 1945 all countries of the communist Eastern Europe implemented a uniform model of health-care system and health policies called socialist Health Services that provided universal, free of charge health care to all citizens. The initial model underwent many reforms with the largest change taking place during the country's democratization and transition to a market economy system after 1989. The processes of the democratization of the political life and economic changes included privatization of the health-care and medical services. In addition to state hospitals, medical care was provided by private doctors and these services were fully paid for by patients. The private medical care was greatly available but was not controlled by the state until a few years later when the state developed networks of state-regulated services, including public and independent health-care centers. Among other changes of the recent decades was establishment of accreditation system in Polish medical institutions implemented in Poland after 1997. As of 2011 there are 98 accredited Polish hospitals. The prevailing mix-health-care system (private and public) is divided by differences in quality of services, with much higher quality medical services being offered by private clinics than by state-sponsored hospitals.

This paper aims to outline the barriers in introducing Lean in health care and to asses which of these have a greater impact in the Uruguayan health-care sector.

To uncover the barriers hindering Lean health-care implementation, a literature review was undertaken. Once identified, first-hand information was obtained from managers and professionals involved in managerial activities who evaluated each of the difficulties using a Likert scale.

In total, 17 barriers to the implementation of Lean health care were identified. Survey results show that the highest scores correspond to “controllable” barriers, those which can be overcome, almost exclusively, by the organization willing to implement the program.

Managers need to understand and ascertain the existing barriers before implementing Lean if they want to develop strategies to mitigate them. Although the exploratory study was conducted in the Uruguayan health-care sector, it could be replicated elsewhere.

An exhaustive list of barriers was synthesized and was later assessed by managers in the Uruguayan context. This is an important first step that could help foresee obstacles and develop strategies prior future implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how one hospital safety coordinator socially constructs a complete environment of care. Specifically, it applies Shotter's “practical author” framework to examine the author‐response interaction between the safety coordinator and other mid‐level supervisors.

Qualitative methodology is employed to examine this authorship. Data include printed materials employees receive upon hire, an observation of an environment of care orientation presentation, and semi‐structured interviews with the safety coordinator and mid‐level supervisors.

The paper reveals how the safety coordinator uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to balance the tensions between mandating compliance with environment of care requirements and facilitating buy‐in to the idea of compliance as a moral and ethical imperative. This creates an ethos among the employees where they feel authorized to go beyond the requirements and act on their own to construct a safer culture.

The paper has multiple practical and theoretical implications that may be useful to health care and other organizations when examining the broader need for a complete, supportive environment where employees not only comply with but actually live and believe in the values of their organizations' cultures. A limitation is that employee perspective and behavior are primarily inferred based on supervisor reports.

The paper extends theory on communication and developing organizational environments and provides practical application possibilities for organizations.

The central lesson to be learned from studying the case is to understand the challenges and constraints posed by contextual conditions in designing contracts in public–private partnerships (PPP) for financing and delivering health care in emerging economies such as India.

Perverse incentives, along with contextual conditions, led to extensive opportunistic behaviors among involved agencies, limiting the effectiveness of otherwise highly regarded innovative design of the program.

India’s “Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana” or National Health Insurance Program, launched in 2007 provided free health insurance coverage to protect millions of low-income families from getting pushed into poverty due to catastrophic health-care expenditure. The program was implemented through a PPP using standardized contracts between multiple stakeholders from the public and private sector – insurance companies, hospitals, intermediaries, the provincial and federal government.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 10 Public Sector Management.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the final report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry and the Law Commissions’ review of health and social care professional regulation – and how these will impact on the professional regulation bodies.

Summary and discussion of the relevant recommendations made by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry and the initial Government response, and consultation responses to the Law Commissions’ provisional proposals for law reform of health and social care professional regulation.

Future legislation is likely to be based on the recommendations of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry and the Law Commissions.

Overview of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry and the initial Government response, and consultation responses to the Law Commissions.