IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v119y2015i7p990-997.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Equality, accessibility, and availability of physical therapy services in Israel—Perception of national directors

Author

Listed:
  • Jacob, Tamar
  • Parag, Ayala

Abstract

To date no research has described Israeli physical therapy (PT) services to determine whether they are provided in the spirit intended by the National Health Insurance Law (NHIL). This study aimed to assess the equality, accessibility, and availability of PT services in Israel. Qualitative research was based on semi-structured, personal interviews with all national directors of PT services in Israel, followed by content analysis of the data obtained. According to the findings, PT services are provided by all Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) throughout Israel. In peripheral areas, access to services is limited; availability of services at most clinics is poor, a problem which is solved mainly by referring patients to PT outsourcing. The number of treatment sessions is determined by the NHIL; however, all directors agreed that the number of treatments provided should be based on a professional decision following patient evaluation and progress, rather than on administrative considerations. Inequality of service to peripheral areas could be reduced by creating cooperation between HMOs, thereby establishing clinics capable of providing services that are both accessible and equitable. In addition, the number of sessions provided to patients in the health-care basket should be reassessed, and a set of uniform criteria should be created for determining the optimal number of PT sessions. This could lead to greater uniformity in distribution of PT services provided by the HMOs.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacob, Tamar & Parag, Ayala, 2015. "Equality, accessibility, and availability of physical therapy services in Israel—Perception of national directors," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(7), pages 990-997.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:119:y:2015:i:7:p:990-997
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2014.12.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851015000020
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2014.12.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lubetzky, Hasia & Friger, Michael & Warshawsky-Livne, Lora & Shvarts, Shifra, 2011. "Distance and socioeconomic status as a health service predictor on the periphery in the southern region of Israel," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 310-316.
    2. Lubetzky, Hasia & Friger, Michael & Warshawsky-Livne, Lora & Shvarts, Shifra, 2011. "Distance and socioeconomic status as a health service predictor on the periphery in the southern region of Israel," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(2-3), pages 310-316, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Weinhold, Ines & Wende, Danny & Schrey, Christopher & Militzer-Horstmann, Carsta & Schang, Laura & Sundmacher, Leonie, 2022. "Assessing patients’ acceptable and realised distances to determine accessibility standards for the size of catchment areas in outpatient care," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(11), pages 1180-1186.
    2. Mesch, Gustavo & Mano, Rita & Tsamir, Judith, 2012. "Minority status and health information search: A test of the social diversification hypothesis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 854-858.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:119:y:2015:i:7:p:990-997. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.