Oregon's Medicaid managed care plan was prohibited from denying access to medically necessary services for people with disabilities based on the medical effectiveness of a procedure for the so-called average patient without considering the unique interaction of various conditions for a specific individual. The ada has also been used to facilitate access to provider offices and services. But access to care does not ensure quality care. The next challenge to the disability community is to use health outcomes as a measure of quality to ensure quality care. Public Health .
Public health encompasses a wide range of strategies affecting the health outcomes of a population.
These include monitoring and providing clinical interventions like immunization rates, plus health education and surveillance of environmental factors that influence health status. Some of the most important influences on health status are related to environmental factors such as pollution and poverty. For example, air pollution has a direct effect on asthma, and poverty has an important effect on exposure to various health risks. While it may not be reasonable to expect health plans to unilaterally develop strategies for reducing pollution or poverty within the communities in which they operate, the healthcare system should create incentives for health plans to coordinate with other community organizations contributing their resources and skills to addressing these public health problems. But after discharge from this expensive inpatient medical procedure, many of these children were back again with the same level of lead contamination in their blood.