465 research outputs found
General practitioners and national health insurance - Results of a national survey
OBJECTIVE: To determine the attitudes of South African general practitioners (GPs) to national health insurance (NHI), social health insurance (SHI) and other related health system reforms. DESIGN: A national survey using postal questionnaires and telephonic follow-up of non-responders. SETTING: GPs throughout South Africa. PARTICIPANTS: Four hundred and forty-three GPs were randomly selected from a national sampling frame of 6,781 GPs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Acceptance of NHI and GP preferences with regard to financing, provision, benefits, coverage and the role of GPs. MAIN RESULTS: A response rate of 82.1% was achieved. Sixty-two per cent of GPs approved of the introduction of some form of social or NHI in South Africa, while 24.1% disapproved. Approval rose to 81.6% if GPs were to maintain their independent status, e.g. own premises and working hours, to 75% if additional private top-up insurance was allowed, and to 79.9% if payment was by fee-for-service. Seventy per cent of GPs in the study stated that they had the capacity to treat more patients. The most important reason given for approving of NHI was to make health care more equitable and accessible to the majority of South Africans. A high proportion of GPs approved of increasing the level of interaction between GPs and district health authorities. CONCLUSIONS: Most GPs approved of some form of social or NHI system, provided that the system did not significantly threaten their professional autonomy or economic and financial situation
General practitioners and national health insurance results of a national survey
Objective. To determine the attitudes of South African general practitioners (GPs) to national health insurance (NHI), social health insurance (SHI) and other related health system reforms.Design. A national survey using postal questionnaires and telephonic follow-up of non-responders.Setting. GPs throughout South Africa.Participants. Four hundred and forty-three GPs were randomly selected from a national sampling frame of 6 781 GPs.Main outcome measures. Acceptance of NHI and GP preferences with regard to financing, provision, benefits, coverage and the role of GPs.Main results. A response rate of 82.1% was achieved. Sixty two per cent of GPs approved of the introduction of some form of social or NHI in South Africa, while 24.1% disapproved. Approval rose to 81.6% if GPs were to maintain their independent status, e.g. own premises and working hours, to 75% if additional private top-up insurance was allowed, and to 79.9% if payment was by fee-for-service. Seventy per cent of GPs in the study stated that they had the capacity to treat more patients. The most important reason given for approving of NHI was to make health care more equitable and accessible to the majority of South Africans. A high proportion of GPs approved of increasing the level of interaction between GPs and district health authorities.Conclusions. Most GPs approved of some form of social or NHI system, provided that the system did not significantly threaten their professional autonomy or economic and financial situation
Acceptability to general practitioners of national health insurance and capitation as a reimbursement mechanism
Objective. To determine general practitioners' attitudes to national health insurance (NHI) and to capitation as a mechanism of reimbursement. To explore determinants of these attitudes.Design. Cross-sectional survey by means of telephone interviews; four focus group discussions.Setting. Cape Peninsula.Participants. 174 GPs randomly sampled from a total population of 874.Main outcome measures. Acceptance of NHI, acceptance of capitation.Main results. 63,3% approved of NHI. More than 81 % approved of NHI if GPs would be able to maintain their independent status, e.g. own premises and working hours;82,3% said NHI would be a more equitable system of health care, 88% approved of the fact that NHI would make care by GPs more accessible, and 73% said they would have the capacity to treat more patients. However, 61,3% of GPs disapproved of capitation as a form of reimbursement.Conclusions. Most GPs in the Cape Peninsula were amenable to some form of NHI. However, the proportion of GPs who approved the introduction of NHI varied depending on details of the NHI system such as payment mechanisms, workload, income and effects on professional autonomy. A national survey of medical practitioners is recommended. The implications of GPs' preferences concerning the reimbursement mechanism for the feasibility of implementing a NHI system in SouthAfrica require serious consideration by policy-makers
Operator *-correspondences in analysis and geometry
An operator *-algebra is a non-selfadjoint operator algebra with completely
isometric involution. We show that any operator *-algebra admits a faithful
representation on a Hilbert space in such a way that the involution coincides
with the operator adjoint up to conjugation by a symmetry. We introduce
operator *-correspondences as a general class of inner product modules over
operator *-algebras and prove a similar representation theorem for them. From
this we derive the existence of linking operator *-algebras for operator
*-correspondences. We illustrate the relevance of this class of inner product
modules by providing numerous examples arising from noncommutative geometry.Comment: 31 pages. This work originated from the MFO workshop "Operator spaces
and noncommutative geometry in interaction
On the Grothendieck Theorem for jointly completely bounded bilinear forms
We show how the proof of the Grothendieck Theorem for jointly completely
bounded bilinear forms on C*-algebras by Haagerup and Musat can be modified in
such a way that the method of proof is essentially C*-algebraic. To this
purpose, we use Cuntz algebras rather than type III factors. Furthermore, we
show that the best constant in Blecher's inequality is strictly greater than
one.Comment: 9 pages, minor change
Noncommutative Figa-Talamanca-Herz algebras for Schur multipliers
We introduce a noncommutative analogue of the Fig\'a-Talamanca-Herz algebra
on the natural predual of the operator space of
completely bounded Schur multipliers on Schatten space . We determine the
isometric Schur multipliers and prove that the space of bounded
Schur multipliers on Schatten space is the closure in the weak operator
topology of the span of isometric multipliers.Comment: 24 pages; corrected typo
Improved Search for Heavy Neutrinos in the Decay
A search for massive neutrinos has been made in the decay . No evidence was found for extra peaks in the positron energy spectrum
indicative of pion decays involving massive neutrinos (). Upper limits (90 \% C.L.) on the neutrino mixing matrix element
in the neutrino mass region 60--135 MeV/ were set, which are
%representing an order of magnitude improvement over previous results
Status of the TRIUMF PIENU Experiment
The PIENU experiment at TRIUMF aims to measure the pion decay branching ratio
with precision % to provide a sensitive test of electron-muon
universality in weak interactions. The current status of the PIENU experiment
is presented.Comment: Talk presented CIPANP2015. 8 pages, LaTeX, 4 eps figure
Precision Measurement of the π+→e+νe Branching Ratio in the PIENU Experiment
The PIENU experiment at TRIUMF aims to measure the branching ratio of the pion decay modes Rπ=[π+→e+νe(γ)]/[π+→μ+νμ(γ)] with precision of <0.1%.
Precise measurement of RÏ€ provides a stringent test of electron-muon universality in weak interactions. The current status of the PIENU experiment and future prospects are presented
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