In the United States, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee. It is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded health care benefit plans, individuals, and other entities, acting as a liaison with health care providers on a prepaid basis. The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 required employers with 25 or more employees to offer federally certified HMO options if the employer offers traditional healthcare options. Unlike traditional indemnity insurance, an HMO covers care rendered by those doctors and other professionals who have agreed by contract to treat patients in accordance with the HMO's guidelines and restrictions in exchange for a steady stream of customers. HMOs cover emergency care regardless of the health care provider's contracted status.
The American Medical Association (AMA), founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of physicians—both MDs and DOs—and medical students in the United States.
Kaiser Permanente is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser Permanente is made up of three distinct but interdependent groups of entities: the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. (KFHP) and its regional operating subsidiaries; Kaiser Foundation Hospitals; and the regional Permanente Medical Groups. As of 2017, Kaiser Permanente operates in eight states and the District of Columbia, and is the largest managed care organization in the United States.
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is a national, voluntary association of physicians that advocates on national health matters. Its new strategic plan identifies its primary mandate: driving positive change in health care by advocating on key health issues facing doctors and their patients.
Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU) is a private, non-profit graduate school for the health professions, with a main campus located on 22 acres (8.9 ha) in downtown Pomona, California, and an additional medical school campus on 50 acres in Lebanon, Oregon. WesternU offers degrees in osteopathic medicine, dental medicine, optometry, podiatric medicine, nursing, physician assistant studies, physical therapy, pharmacy, biomedical sciences, and veterinary medicine. With an enrollment of 3,833 students (2018–19), WesternU is one of the largest graduate schools for the health professions in California, offering 21 academic programs in nine colleges, and has the broadest array of graduate health sciences colleges in the United States.
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the public hospitals and clinics in Los Angeles County, and is United States' second largest municipal health system, after NYC Health + Hospitals.
Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center is a rehabilitation hospital located in Downey, California, United States. Its name in Spanish means "Friends' Ranch".
Sham peer review or malicious peer review is a name given to the abuse of a medical peer review process to attack a doctor for personal or other non-medical reasons. The American Medical Association conducted an investigation of medical peer review in 2007 and concluded that while it is easy to allege misconduct and 15% of surveyed physicians indicated that they were aware of peer review misuse or abuse, cases of malicious peer review able to be proven through the legal system are rare.
Patient advocacy is an area of specialization in health care concerned with advocacy for patients, survivors, and caregivers. The patient advocate may be an individual or an organization, often, though not always, concerned with one specific group of disorders. The terms patient advocate and patient advocacy can refer both to individual advocates providing services that organizations also provide, and to organizations whose functions extend to individual patients. Some patient advocates work for the institutions that are directly responsible for the patient's care.
Prime Healthcare Services is an American private company. It was established in 2001 by Chairman of the Board Prem Reddy. It operates 45 acute care hospitals serving communities in San Bernardino, San Diego, Los Angeles, Inglewood, Orange County and Shasta County in California, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Rhode Island and Texas. The hospital network has over 42,000 employees and physicians and more than 7,700 patient beds.
Brian Day, is an orthopedic surgeon and health researcher in Canada, a past president of the Canadian Medical Association, and a prominent sometimes controversial advocate for patient access to a hybrid of Canada's health system.
Sutter Health is a not-for-profit health system in Northern California, headquartered in Sacramento. It includes doctors, hospitals and other health care services in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns. Major service lines of Sutter Health-affiliated hospitals include cardiac care, women's and children's services, cancer care, orthopedics and advanced patient safety technology.
Marshall B. Ketchum University is a private university focused on graduate programs in healthcare and located in Fullerton, California. MBKU expanded from the Southern California College of Optometry which was founded in 1904. The university was officially established as a multidisciplinary university with the addition of School of PA Studies in 2011 and College of Pharmacy in 2013.
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation for Health Care, Research and Education (PAMF) is a not-for-profit health care organization with medical offices in more than 15 cities in the Bay Area. It has more than 900 physicians and had over 2 million patient visits in 2008. It is rated as one of California’s top medical groups.
Cultural competence in healthcare refers to the ability for healthcare professionals to demonstrate cultural competence toward patients with diverse values, beliefs, and feelings. This process includes consideration of the individual social, cultural, and feelings needs of patients for effective cross-cultural communication with their health care providers. The goal of cultural competence in health care is to reduce health disparities and to provide optimal care to patients regardless of their race, gender, ethnic background, native languages spoken, and religious or cultural beliefs. Cultural competency training is important in health care fields where human interaction is common, including medicine, nursing, allied health, mental health, social work, pharmacy, oral health, and public health fields.
Pejman Salimpour is an Iranian-American physician, professor, and business executive. He is the co-founder of both CareNex Health Services (now part of Anthem and Plymouth Health, the latter of which previously owned Alvarado Hospital in San Diego, California. Salimpour is credited as the lead physician in a campaign that successfully challenged the legality of certain exclusivity agreements between hospitals and doctors' groups, opening hospitals to more physician specialists and enabled patients to be seen by physicians of their choice.
Rose Talbot Bullard was an American physician and medical school professor, who was elected president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association in 1902.
