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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Revenue streams and clinical discretion | | Author(s) | E Haavi Morreim |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 46, no 3, March 1998 |
| Pages | pp 331-337 |
| Keywords | Economics ; Finance [care] ; Revenue [care] ; Medical care ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Every medical decision is a spending decision, and whoever has responsibility for financing healthcare is likely to exert control, as is the case with managed care organisations (MCOs) in the US. `Revenue streams' relate to who is prepared to take financial risks either by controlling the decisions generating costs, or by transferring financial risk to the decision maker. Under some forms of managed care this can create threats to clinical discretion, and a doctor's ability to agree treatment regimens acceptable to his patients. The author examines the relationship between good business, good medicine and good ethics, since intrusive cost-cutting and crude incentives can be counterproductive economically as well as medically and ethically. The challenge is for MCOs and health plans to create new ways of meeting patients' needs under the new realities of financial limits. The author believes that there is good reason to hope for considerably improved healthcare delivery in the US in the not too distant future. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980821007 A |
| Classmark | W: QC: QE: LK: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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