Regulation in a Transforming Healthcare Delivery System In the United States, the healthcare delivery system is undergoing a period of significant and rapid change.
Evidence of system shifts began in 1995, when the Pew Health Professions Commission (1994) published a sweeping report that stimulated new thinking about existing regulatory systems.
The report suggested that the system, based on a century-old model structured with separate health professions agencies regulating individual health professionals with potentially overlapping scopes of practice, was out of sync with the nation’s healthcare deliv- ery systems and financing structures. The Pew Health Professions Commission suggested that major reform was needed and asked states to review regulatory processes with the following questions in mind (Dower & Finocchio, 1995, p. 1):
■ Does regulation promote effective health outcomes and protect the public from harm?
■ Are regulatory bodies truly accountable to the public?
■ Does regulation respect consumers’ rights to choose their own healthcare providers from a range of safe options?
■ Does regulation encourage a flexible, rational, and cost-effective healthcare system?
■ Does regulation allow effective working relationships among healthcare providers?
■ Does regulation promote equity among providers of equal skill?
■ Does regulation facilitate professional and geographic mobility of competent providers?
