Pharmacy and the U.S. Health Care System, Second Edition, examines and gages the ramifications of each of these phenomena to clarify the issues at stake and ensure that better-informed and prepared students, academics, practicing pharmacists, and manufacturers emerge to lead the profession to a higher level of success. As you will see, without the active examination of societal changes and the setting of new professional goals, the profession faces stagnation. Pharmacists face formidable tasks such as filling more and more prescriptions with less time and manpower, increasing one-on-one contact with health care consumers, monitoring consumer consumption of over-the-counter drugs, and surviving the competition caused by mail order pharmacy and 'discriminatory'pricing. Pharmacy and the U.S. Health Care System provides you with in-depth coverage of these challenges and the strategies and techniques now being employed by leaders in the field to control health care utilization and cost. You will also learn critical information about: how the U.S. spends little on health promotion yet huge amounts on prolonging unhealthy life at the end of human lifespans health care financing competitive bidding among HMOs that reduces premiums for member companies how pharmacy interfaces with the contemporary health care system disease management programs how patient behavior and patient compliance influence the drug use process capitation--the most powerful tool to reduce the cost of health plans the role of pharmacists in providing services and products to patients residing in long-term care facilities Pharmacists will find in this accessible and easy-to-read book the insight they need to channel their expertise into drug product selection, therapeutic substitution, and disease management to see that clinical, economic, and humanistic outcomes are incorporated into developing patient care plans. Pharmacy and the U.S. Health Care System will guide you to action; don't let other forces determine the role your profession will play in the future of health care provision!