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Until a few years ago I concentrated my attention on workers'compensa­ tion programs in the United States and Canada. Because the United States has 52 programs and Canada has eight, I was exposed to a diversity of approaches that caused me to believe that few other approaches existed. Since 1984 I have become more aware of what the rest of the world has been doing and discovered that my knowledge needed to be broadened significantly. The trigger action was a 1984 faculty research exchange agreement between Keio University in Tokyo and the University of Minnesota that made it possible for me to spend much of my time studying Japan's workers'compensation program and comparing it with the United States approaches. Japan's program had several features that I had not encountered in the United States or Canada. After this experience I attached considerably more value to and spent more time studying the Social Security Administration's biennial reports on Social Security Pro­ grams Throughout The World, which include workers'compensation programs. I also presented papers at two meetings of the International Insurance Society based on my Japanese and Social Security Adminis­ tration report research. Many participants urged further study in this area and offered to send me materials describing their nations'programs. The result is this study which I hope that readers will find interesting and worthwhile.

This e-book integrates all aspects of medical care relevant to worker compensation. It explains benefits of the application of evidence-based approaches to worker compensation care. Improved outcomes of such approaches include less risky treatments, faster healing, and good return to work experience. It also points towards designing a better health care system with a focus on the economy, healthcare policy and change, and growing innovation in medical practice. The e-book should serve as a significantly important reference tool for several working professionals in healthcare systems as well for as students and trainees.

Moral Hazard and Benefits Consumption Capital in Program Overlap reviews and extends the analysis of moral hazard response in two empirical directions: 1) how insurance changes in one program affects employee participation in other programs at a point in time (inter-program moral hazard), and 2) how the consumption of program benefits now tends to affect employees behavior over time (benefits consumption capital). The authors focus principally on workers compensation and programs that overlap with potential workers compensation coverage to keep institutional issues to a manageable level. This will not only include employer-provided health/health care insurance, short and long term disability insurance, and Federal benefits under the social security disability program, but also Federal benefits paid under unemployment insurance.