Reviews

Health services research became a big-time business following Medicare's establishment in the mid-1960s. The changes in the mode and manner of payments for medical and hospital services created an economic environment in which it was essential to establish a running account of moneys spent with some degree of predictability of future costs, given changes in the program. This collection of articles provide substantial evidence of the relationship between health services research and medical economies as it relates to hospital care costs, health care for the poor and the aging, economic aspects of such alternative delivery systems as HMOs, quality of care, and physician supply. While these essays emphasize economics and tend to ignore social and cultural aspects of the problem, Ginzberg's excellent and readable introductory and closing chapters place the data in a necessary larger context. Recommended for specialized medical and business libraries.-- Norman Lederer, Stevens State Sch. of Technology, Lancaster, Pa.