Rawlsian Justice and Palliative Care

Palliative care serves both as an integrated part of treatment and as a last effort to care for those we cannot cure. The extent to which palliative care should be provided and our reasons for doing so have been curiously overlooked in the debate about distributive justice in health and healthcare. We argue that one prominent approach, the Rawlsian approach developed by Norman Daniels, is unable to provide such reasons and such care. This is because of a central feature in Daniels' account, namely that care should be provided to restore people's opportunities. Daniels' view is both unable to provide pain relief to those who need it as a supplement to treatment and, without justice‐based reasons to provide palliative care to those whose opportunities cannot be restored. We conclude that this makes Daniels' framework much less attractive.     

Medical crowdfunding and the virtuous donor

Patients and families are increasingly turning to crowdfunding to help them cover the cost of medical care. The ethics of crowdfunding has garnered some attention in the bioethical literature. In this paper I examine an ethical aspect of medical crowdfunding (MCF) that has received limited attention: the role of donors. I defend a virtue ethical approach to analyzing the role of donors in MCF. Vicious donation, where donors do not exercise the relevant virtues, can compound some of the ethical risks associated with MCF, as seen in the several recent, high‐profile cases. My primary contention in this paper is that encouraging donors to think about how donating to a particular campaign would measure against the virtues I outline could help to discourage acts of ethically problematic donation to MCF campaigns.     

Response: Freedom from Pain as a Rawlsian Primary Good

In a recent article in this journal, Carl Knight and Andreas Albertsen argue that Rawlsian theories of distributive justice as applied to health and healthcare fail to accommodate both palliative care and the desirability of less painful treatments. The asserted Rawlsian focus on opportunities or capacities, as exemplified in Normal Daniels’ developments of John Rawls’ theory, results in a normative account of healthcare which is at best only indirectly sensitive to pain and so unable to account for the value of efforts of which the sole purpose is pain reduction. I argue that, far from undermining the Rawlsian project and its application to problems of health, what the authors’ argument at most amounts to is a compelling case for the inclusion of freedom from physical pain within its index of primary goods.     

Patent Funded Access to Medicines

Instead of impeding access to essential medicines in developing countries, the essay explores why and how patents can serve as a source of funding for the much needed access to medicine. Instead of a weakening of patents, prolonged protection periods are suggested in circumstances where there is widespread lack of access. The revenues from extended patents are seen as a source of funding for drug donations to the least developed countries.     

基于远程医疗的异地转诊就医一体化实践探索

为探索借助远程医疗解决异地转诊就医一体化的问题，为异地转诊就医患者提供医疗保障。某医院成立专科疾病医联体，借助远程医疗对异地转诊就医患者提供医疗服务，总结某医院借助远程医疗，以专科疾病医联体进行精准转诊、异地就医，提供医疗保障的实践经验。某医院借助远程医疗，以专科疾病医联体为抓手，制定了精准转诊的规章制度，为异地就医患者提供了更加方便快捷的服务，同时降低了医疗费用，节省了医疗基金的开支，实践效果显著。借助远程医疗，成立专科疾病医联体，可以很好的实现患者精准转诊、精准医疗，解决异地就诊患者“看病难、看病贵”问题，为异地就医患者提供更好的医疗保障，助推实现全国异地就医一体化的大健康战略。     

AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLES OF NEEDS‐BASED ALLOCATION OF HEALTH CARE

The concept of need is often proposed as providing an additional or alternative criterion to cost‐effectiveness in making allocation decisions in health care. If it is to be of practical value it must be sufficiently precisely characterized to be useful to decision makers. This will require both an account of how degree of need for an intervention is to be determined and a prioritization rule that clarifies how degree of need and the cost of the intervention interact in determining the relative priority of the intervention. Three common features of health care interventions must be accommodated in a comprehensive theory of need: the probabilistic nature of prognosis (with and without the intervention); the time course of effects; and the fact that the most effective treatments often combine more than one intervention. These common features are problematic for the concept of need. We outline various approaches to prioritization on the basis of need and argue that some approaches are more promising than others.     

Reuse Of Pacemakers In Ghana And Nigeria: Medical,Legal, Cultural And Ethical Perspectives

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally. Over 80% of CVD deaths take place in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). It is estimated that 1 million to 2 million people worldwide die each year due to lack of access to an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) or a pacemaker. Despite the medical, legal, cultural and ethical controversies surrounding the pacemaker reutilization, studies done so far on the reuse of postmortem pacemakers show it to be safe and effective with an infection rate of 1.97% and device malfunction rate of 0.68%. Pacemaker reutilization can be effectively and safely done and does not pose significant additional risk to the recipient. Heart patients with reused pacemakers have an improved quality of life compared to those without pacemakers. The thesis of this paper is that pacemaker reutilization is a life‐saving initiative in LMICs of Nigeria and Ghana. It is cost effective; consistent with the principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice with a commitment to stewardship of resources and the Common Good. Used pacemakers with adequate battery life can be properly sterilized for use by patients in LMICs who cannot afford the cost of a new pacemaker.     

医疗机构医保相关违规行为监管的国际经验与启示

医疗保险违规欺诈行为监管是各国政府部门和医疗保险管理机构面临的共同问题,从监管主体、监管对象、监管内容、监管工具和监管依据等方面对不同医疗卫生体制模式,国家关于定点医疗机构医保违规欺诈行为监管的做法和经验进行比较分析。结果显示,扩大医疗保险项目覆盖范围是监管医疗机构的基础,混合付费体系是监管医疗机构的重要制度工具,卫生行政部门在医疗机构监管中发挥着重要的作用,政府主导的监管模式是主流的监管模式,应注重按过程监管的全方位监管方式,健全的法律法规和惩处机制是有效控制欺诈骗保行为的重要保障,信息系统的建立和完善是有效和快速地识别系统内不合理或异常支付的有效手段。     

关于医保经办机构与定点医疗机构之间建立谈判机制的探讨

基于提高医疗服务质量和确保医保基金合理支付的目的,医保经办机构与定点医疗机构之间谈判机制的建立在新医改进程中逐渐成为关注的焦点之一。医保经办机构与定点医疗机构之间谈判机制的建立,对于激励医疗机构医疗质量的提高、促进支付制度的完善以及更有效地保障参保人群健康有重要意义。从谈判的背景、主体、前提、内容和目标等方面对谈判机制的建立进行了探讨和研究。     

医疗保险费用分析及管理探讨

目的 了解影响医保患者医疗费用的主要因素,为控制医疗费用的不合理增长和医疗保险支付方式的改革提供参考依据。方法 收集2006—2009年三级基本医疗保险定点医疗机构住院费用,对可能的影响因素进行相关分析。结果 人均住院费用呈逐年上涨趋势。次均费用与药品比例、材料呈正相关（决定系数分别为0.914和0.909,P＝0.044和0.046）,P＜0.05。结论 合理降低药费比例和耗材比例是控制医疗费用过快增长的关键。应加快医疗保险支付方式的改革,制定科学的诊疗规范、临床路径。     

Standard of Care,Institutional Obligations,and Distributive Justice

The problem of standard of care in clinical research concerns the level of treatment that investigators must provide to subjects in clinical trials. Commentators often formulate answers to this problem by appealing to two distinct types of obligations: professional obligations and natural duties. In this article, I investigate whether investigators also possess institutional obligations that are directly relevant to the problem of standard of care, that is, those obligations a person has because she occupies a particular institutional role. I examine two types of institutional contexts: (1) public research agencies – agencies or departments of states that fund or conduct clinical research in the public interest; and (2) private‐for‐profit corporations. I argue that investigators who are employed or have their research sponsored by the former have a distinctive institutional obligation to conduct their research in a way that is consistent with the state's duty of distributive justice to provide its citizens with access to basic health care, and its duty to aid citizens of lower income countries. By contrast, I argue that investigators who are employed or have their research sponsored by private‐for‐profit corporations do not possess this obligation nor any other institutional obligation that is directly relevant to the ethics of RCTs. My account of the institutional obligations of investigators aims to contribute to the development of a reasonable, distributive justice‐based account of standard of care.     

PALLIATIVE CARE, PUBLIC HEALTH AND JUSTICE: SETTING PRIORITIES IN RESOURCE POOR COUNTRIES

Many countries have not considered palliative care a public health problem. With limited resources, disease-oriented therapies and prevention measures take priority. In this paper, I intend to describe the moral framework for considering palliative care as a public health priority in resource-poor countries. A distributive theory of justice for health care should consider integrative palliative care as morally required as it contributes to improving normal functioning and preserving opportunities for the individual. For patients requiring terminal care , we are guided less by principles of justice and more by the duty to relieve suffering and society's commitment to protecting the professional's obligation to uphold principles of beneficence, compassion and non-abandonment. A fair deliberation process is necessary to allow these strong moral commitments to serve as reasons when setting priorities in resource poor countries.     

Standard of Care,Professional Obligations,and Distributive Justice

The problem of standard‐of‐care in clinical research concerns the level of care that investigators ought to provide to research subjects in the control arm of their clinical trials. Commentators differ sharply on whether subjects in trials conducted in lower income countries should be provided with the same level of care as subjects in trials conducted in higher income countries. I consider an argument that commentators have employed on both sides of this debate: professional role arguments. These arguments claim to justify a conclusion to the standard‐of‐care problem solely by appeal to the professional obligations that investigators possess. I argue that prominent versions of professional role arguments cannot justify a solution to the problem of standard‐of‐care that is both determinate and reasonable simply by appeal to the professional obligations of investigators. Instead, to do so, one must also (1) determine the level of care or types of treatment that individuals are entitled to as a matter of distributive justice, and (2) identify which agents possess the duties that correspond to these entitlements. The level of care that investigators owe to subjects in the control arm of their clinical trials is thus in part dependent on the level of care that these subjects are entitled to as a matter of distributive justice, and whether it is the investigators who possess the corresponding distributive obligation to provide them with the care that they are entitled to.     

医疗保险专业委员会的工作实践与思考

如何保证医、保、患三方和谐发展，建立良好沟通平台，这是我国医疗保险制度建立实施过程中面临的主要问题。天津市医保专业委员会在3年工作中进行了探索和尝试，取得较好业绩。从医疗保险专业委员会成立的背景、工作职责、工作内容、存在的问题4个方面作了介绍，并提出了改进建议。     

我国定点医疗机构医疗保险相关违规行为及其监管研究

我国医疗保险制度不断发展和完善,在解决群众“看病难、看病贵”问题上发挥了重要作用。但由于相关配套政策尚不完善、监管机制不健全等原因,出现了一系列骗取、套取医保资金的违法、违规行为,给国家和人民造成很大的经济损失。主要从定点医疗机构医保相关违规行为的现象入手,分析违规行为产生的原因和形成机制,总结各地工作经验,并提出政策建议,以期为卫生行政部门下一步工作提供参考依据。     

Global Health Care Justice,Delivery Doctors and Assisted Reproduction: Taking a Note From Catholic Social Teachings

This article will examine the Catholic concept of global justice within a health care framework as it relates to women's needs for delivery doctors in the developing world and women's demands for assisted reproduction in the developed world. I will first discuss justice as a theory, situating it within Catholic social teachings. The Catholic perspective on global justice in health care demands that everyone have access to basic needs before elective treatments are offered to the wealthy. After exploring specific discrepancies in global health care justice, I will point to the need for delivery doctors in the developing world to provide basic assistance to women who hazard many pregnancies as a priority before offering assisted reproduction to women in the developed world. The wide disparities between maternal health in the developing world and elective fertility treatments in the developed world are clearly unjust within Catholic social teachings. I conclude this article by offering policy suggestions for moving closer to health care justice via doctor distribution.     

总额预付背景下医院医保管理策略的调整与思考

目的 探寻总额预付制度对于三级综合医院医保管理工作的影响,并有针对性的提出改进措施。方法 采用访谈法、比较法等收集信息资料,并对相关数据进行统计处理和实施效果分析。结果 医院对管理策略的合理调整,有助于多种角度控制医疗费用增长,临床医务人员在诊疗行为方面趋于规范化,不合理用药现象减少。结论 总额预付制度的实施有助于医院医疗费用的控制,医保的管理意识得到强化。     

台湾地区全民健保总额预算制度设计与运行效果评述

总额预算制作为医保对供方主要支付方式之一在国际上得到广泛应用,我国的上海、北京等地区也开始在不同程度上通过总额预算方式实现支付方式改革。总额预算作为一种控制医疗费用过快增长的方式既有优势也存在弊端。以我国台湾地区为例,介绍总额预算制度的运行机制和总额制定方式,并探讨总额预算制的实施效果,分析总额预算达到效果最优化的制度设计,为改革提供政策借鉴。     

Medical and dental status of a culture in transition,the case of the Inuit elderly of Canada

The medical and dental status, and drug utilisation pattern of Canadian Inuit elders (60+years) were evaluated. Inuit elders averaged 6.3 medical conditions per person, primarily nervous system-sense organ deficits, respiratory problems and systemic infections. The mean number of drugs being used was 2.5 per person, primarily analgesics, bronchodilators and antibiotics. Poorly fitting dentures, and high levels of tooth decay, periodontal disease, soft tissue and TMJ anomalies were documented. Compared to older southern Canadians, the medical and dental findings for these Inuit elders were different. Drug utilisation rates were consistent with older southern Canadians, but different drugs were taken.