Health education and promotion in HMOs: the recent evidence

Preventive mental health and substance abuse programs and services in managed care

If effective preventive behavioral health services were available to the millions of Americans enrolled in managed care organizations, the public health impact could be significant. This project sought to summarize published research-based information about effective preventive interventions for mental health and substance use (tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs) shown or likely to have no negative cost impact. Fifty-four studies satisfied seven screening criteria. Their findings demonstrated that preventive behavioral health interventions appropriate for managed care settings have been evaluated and have been shown to be effective. Some produced cost savings or offset costs. Six preventive behavioral health interventions are therefore recommended for managed care.

Health education: what can it look like after health care reform? 1993 SOPHE presidential address

In the fall of 1993 the plans for the Health Security Act were unveiled: health education was referenced no fewer than 18 times. This 1993 SOPHE Presidential Address examines the role of health education under the plans for and principles of health care reform. As Bill Clinton stated, "an intensified health education system must be designed to educate and encourage the American people to change behavior that results in ill health and high costs." It is argued that health education has been demonstrated to be effective at reducing risk behaviors associated with each of the leading causes of death. Likewise health education should, can, and does play a role in each of the health goals and objectives for the year 2000. Health reform provides new opportunities to invest in prevention, public health and health education--not only in medical care settings--but in schools, at worksites, and in the community. Health education in these settings can help create supportive environments that make healthy choices the easy choices, ensuring that health reform can succeed.

Health education in medical group practices: promoting health or business?

This article attempts to explain differences in the health education activities of medical group practices. Potential explanatory factors examined include: providing prepaid care, group ownership, group size, and specialty composition and mechanism for making group policy. The data used in this analysis were collected by the American Medical Association through the 1986 National Survey of Medical Groups. Results indicate that the conduct of a variety of health education activities was determined primarily by the group's policy mechanism. That groups with more formal policy mechanisms are more likely to conduct health education activities suggests that the provision of health education is a business decision rather than a medical one. Some implications for health educators of the use of health education to promote a practice are discussed.