Health and Health care - Community

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1. What degree and in what ways does Psychology think about health and health care? Can you give me several examples? Thanks. I prefer a long answer/explanation, rather than a brief one-sentence answer.
Psychology: Disease-prevention and Management roles
Health-care shifts in the United States and internationally aimed at preventing diseases instead of just treating them put psychologists in a position to demonstrate how they benefit both patients and the industry's bottom line, says psychologist David H. Barlow, PhD, of Boston University.
To what degree does psychology think of health and healthcare? It depends, but there is a definite move toward psychology being a part of the general healthcare (as opposed to only mental health care, health is now defined broader). For example, in new collaborative roles, psychologists are working alongside physicians treating patients in traditional medical settings, such as oncology clinics, and developing chronic disease-prevention and management programs, such as smoking-cessation initiatives, which benefit the health of the public at large, says Barlow, who in 1996 published an influential American Psychologist (Vol. 51, No. 10) article on psychologists' shifting and expanding roles in health care. Moreover, Barlow says, there's a growing awareness among employers, insurance companies and legislators that psychologists can fill such disease-prevention and management roles in general health care. (1)
"In an era of evidence-based practice, psychological treatments have been shown to be the equal of or to be superior to alternative medical or pharmacological treatments," Barlow says. "As their benefit to the public's health and well-being is accepted, these treatments are finally being promoted by health-care policy-makers, creating a huge opportunity for psychologists." Even as the trend toward growing roles for practitioners takes shape, much work remains in fully integrating psychological services into health-care service delivery and reimbursement systems, according to APA Executive Director for Professional Practice Russ Newman, PhD, JD. Newman offers the example of disease management, where it costs additional dollars to add psychological services where they did not previously exist to achieve better outcomes. (1)
Convincing health insurers to make the investment is challenging, Newman says: "Payers seem less focused on how the added services will improve health than they are on how much money the added services will cost, or who is going to pay for the added services in the short run." (1)
Health and Behavior Assessment and Intervention Codes
Still, there are signs of progress. Newman points to one recent development in reimbursement that helps facilitate practitioners ...