The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation's leading public health agency, is especially concerned about the impact of this trend with these changes. The changes mentioned most frequently by analysts are the overall health of communities and the delivery of essential public health services at the state and local levels. Essential Public Health Services 101 Sinnock's definition of privatization concerning public health is the shift to the private sector for some or all aspects of the management and delivery of essential public health services. He went on to define essential public health services as the general areas of assessment, policy development, and assurance. Assessment includes diagnosing illnesses and diseases.
Policy development involves shaping positions on key health issues by the government.
Assurance encompasses developing programs that attest to quality in the operations of state programs. Six examples of broad public health services provided by state governments include monitoring the health status to identify community health problems, diagnosing and investigating health problems, informing and educating the public, mobilizing community partnerships, evaluating effectiveness and accessibility, and research for new insights and innovative solutions. Sinnock continued to explain the different ways to privatize these services. Contracting is the most frequent form of privatization. About 94 percent of all efforts in the health arena take one of these four forms.