ABSTRACT
The government’s role in healthcare delivery is threefold. The government serves as a payer of healthcare, as a provider of healthcare, and as a regulator of healthcare. This chapter addresses primarily the role of government as regulator. As regulator, the impact of governmental requirements comes not only from the legislative branch but also from the executive and judicial branches. The Hill–Burton Act was intended to fund the development of new and replacement hospitals and nursing homes in under-served areas. The Hill–Burton Act was still funding hospital construction until 1997. Awareness of the cost of charity care across the country led directly to the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act evolved out of the policy that some hospitals employed to transfer uninsured patients from their emergency departments to public hospitals. Medical malpractice litigation has three social goals: “to deter unsafe practices, to compensate persons injured through negligence, and to exact corrective justice”.
