Health care planning: acts, agencies, and activities of the federal government.

Healthh care planning and provision are societal responsibilities supported by the federal government since 1798. To maximize benefits of money spent on health care during the past two decades, the federal government created in succession Regional Medical Programs, Medicare and Medicaid, area-wide Comprehensive Health Planning Agencies, and Professional Standards Review Organizations, and enacted the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974. Health care planning consists of three phases: assessment, planning, and implementation. Intrinsic to these activities are decisions concerning the extent to which society is willing to devote its resources, the types of health care to be given, and to whom services will be rendered.