Providing for Rehabilitation and Chronic Care of the Nonelderly

Abstract

A major cause of rising health care costs in the United States is waste and redundancy due to a lack of uniformity in planning and executing health care delivery. This is especially notable with regard to rehabilitation and chronic care. Planning and execution would be more rational and less wasteful if it were based on the health care needs of a homogeneous population. The rehabilitation and chronic care needs of patients with central nervous system trauma are similar to those of 80 to 85% of the nonelderly population (persons less than 65 years of age). Thus, the planning of rehabilitation and chronic care of the nonelderly may be modeled after the health care requirements of patients with central nervous system trauma. Lessons learned from such modeling may be applied to the entire United States health care system.