Clinical services and the regulatory environment: an overview.

Most clinicians have difficulty participating in the political process. Patients/clients come first, and there is often little time to pursue information about the political and regulatory processes affecting clinical practice. Yet, such activity is imperative if speech-language pathologists and other practitioners want to achieve individual and collective professional goals and ensure sufficient funding for services to consumers. This article is an overview of politics, health-care policy, and regulation. Definitions are presented, and concepts regarding how politics become policy are cast in the familiar structure-process-outcome triad. Four types of regulation are discussed, and current regulatory initiatives are explained from the perspective of policy-makers. The discussion concludes by applying these concepts to issues and behaviors of specific interest to speech-language pathologists and sets the stage for the other articles in this publication.