The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.

After a great deal of discussion and debate across all levels of government, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law in March 2010. Since President Trump's election into office, the ACA has stayed in the headlines. Trump has continued to call for the replacement and repeal of the ACA, and several efforts have spawned in both the House and the Senate to accomplish this goal. Unlike welfare reform, which was generally embraced by all states, the ACA has proven very divisive in some states, with some states actively seeking to block implementation. Alternative solutions continue to prove elusive. To better understand the major factors driving decision-making process and state-level dynamics influencing state support or opposition of the ACA, this book examines the initial implementation through established support and opposition factors across four states: Alabama, Michigan, California, and New Hampshire. The choices made by states are a direct consequence of long-term forces, and the choices made at the national level. State Politics and the Affordable Care Act will be of interest to scholars researching in public administration, policy formulation and implementation, and policy analysis.

This interdisciplinary collection examines the role that alcohol, tobacco and other drugs have played in framing certain groups and spaces as ‘dangerous’ and in influencing the nature of formal responses to the perceived threat. Taking a historical and cross-national perspective, it explores how such groups and spaces are defined and bounded as well as the processes by which they come to be seen as ‘risky’. It discusses how issues of perceived danger highlight questions of control and the management of behaviours, people and environments, and it pays attention to the way in which sanctions and regulations have been implemented in a variety of often inconsistent ways that frequently impact differently on different sections of the population. Bringing together a range of case studies drawn from different countries and across different periods of time, the chapters collected here illustrate issues of marginalisation, stigmatisation, human rights and social expectations. It is of interest to a diverse audience of historians, philosophers, human geographers, anthropologists, sociologists and criminologists interested in substance use and misuse, deviance, risk and power among other topics.

The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) project is along-term R&D effort with the ambitious goal of enabling computer systems to understandÓ medical meaning. This is essential to the development of advanced health information systems. This annotated bibliography of 280 citations covers: UMLS knowledge sources; UMLS applications (vocabulary construction & concept discovery; data creation; natural language processing, indexing, & retrieval; linking clinical systems to knowledge-based info. sources; access to multiple knowledge-based info. sources); preliminary & ancillary studies; UMLS in relation to other programs; & opinions about UMLS.

Written by experts in the field of pharmacovigilance and patient safety, this concise resource provides a succinct, easy-to-digest overview of an increasingly critical area of medical safety. Drs. Thao Doan, Fabio Lievano, Mondira Bhattacharya, and Linda Scarazzini provide essential information for health care professionals, clinical researchers, and regulators who need a comprehensive, up-to-date source of information on the principles and practice of pharmacovigilance. - Covers the evolving regulatory landscape, as well as current and future use of digital technologies. - Uses case studies to ensure content is relevant to everyday practice. - Discusses behavioral science and patient perspectives, risk communication, and new frontiers in pharmacovigilance. - Consolidates today's available information on this timely topic into one convenient resource.

Medical and Care Compunetics 5 accompanies the fifth annual ICMCC Event, which is one of the leading information platforms for medical and care ICT. The focal point of this publication lies on compunetics, the social, societal and ethical aspects of medical and care ICT. This book contains a variety of debatable subjects. Among national and regional projects, issues discussed are aspects of electronic health records and European projects. There is also a discussion of knowledge management, which is lead by Arthur Krukowski and Andy Marsh; other issues that are considered are behavioral compunetics, empowerment and there is also a discussion of personal health paradigm challenging citizens and patients lead by Prof. Dr. Bernd Blobel from the eHealth Competence Center jointly with the European Federation for Medical Informatics, Working Groups ‘Electronic Health Records’ and ‘Security, Safety and Ethics’.