Managed Care
There are so many problems with our society’s health care. Everyone wants to find a
solution, but no one has been able to come up with one yet. Many different things have been
tried, but none have put a cease to the exorbitant costs, which most believe to be the main
problem. Out of everything tried, the most recent and popular system is known as managed care.
Managed care is the most common form of health insurance in the United States, and provides
more a cost efficient coverage than paying a fee-for-service charge. However, it is also a very
complicated system. Over the next few pages I am going to try and go over the main parts of the
managed care structure. In the end, I am going to
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Although the goals have not yet been met, managed care has
continued to grow throughout the past four decades. At the end of 1996, there were over 600
HMO’s in operation, enrolling around 65 million members, which is about 1/4 of the population
(Tufts 1998).
Before I get into the different types of managed care organizations, I am going to go over
some cost control methods in managed care. Managed care organizations are different methods
used to control utilization of services. Utilization management requires three things. First, you
have to have an expert evaluation of which services are medically necessary in a given case. This
ensures that unnecessary services are kept to a minimum. Secondly it requires a determination of
how those services can be provided most inexpensively, while maintaining a high level of
quality of care. It also requires a review of the process of care and changes in the patients
condition to revise the course of medical treatment if necessary. The methods that are most
commonly used for utilization monitoring and control are choice restriction, gatekeeping, case
management, utilization reviews, and practice profiling.
The first method I am going to talk about is choice restriction. Traditional health
insurance gave the insured open access to any provider. This led to an over use of services. Most
of the managed care plans have some sort of
Managed care dominates health care in the United States. It is any health care delivery system that combines the functions of health insurance and the actual delivery of care, where costs and utilization of services are controlled by methods such as gatekeeping, case management, and utilization review. Different types of managed care plans came into development by three major factors. These factors include choice of providers, different ways of arranging the delivery of services, and payment and risk sharing. Types of managed care organizations include Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) which consist of five common models that differ according to how the HMO is related to the participating physicians, Preferred Provider Organizations
What are the three main payment mechanisms managed care uses? In each mechanism who bears the risk.
So why don’t these people get insurance? Well, as is so often quoted, “money makes the world go round.” When it comes to health insurance however, it is not the world, but only America that seems to have a problem with providing health care for a reasonable price to its citizens. 55 percent of uninsured people answered that the reason they are without the safety of insurance is the reason everyone expects--they cannot afford it (NRHA 1).
Health care has been an area of discussion for some time now. In the United States, the current health care system is a private system that allows individuals to choose their own method of care. Despite the freedom that comes with the independent nature of this type of health care system, the true disposition creates more problems than it solves. The privacy of the health care institutions has caused affordability and access to become serious issues with this system. Additionally, those with lower socioeconomic status fall short of the ability to access the same pool of resources as everyone else. Due to the issues with affordability, access, and the poor infrastructure of the health care system, a universal health
Managed care plan is another significant health care plan that gives options that may either make it easy or limit medical care services by the patients. This is the type that most people embrace. It covers a wide spectrum of health services in a cheaper and most convenient way. Costs are relatively lower when patients utilize the doctors and other stake holders. Mostly this cover does not require one to fill out any insurance forms or give out any claims to the company that has given you the cover when one uses the in-network providers. One pays a co pay each time he visits the doctor or any hospital. This co pay varies depending on who you visit and whether you receive brand name or generic prescription drug. Various managed care plans adopt a mail-order pharmacy alternative. In this alternative, one sends for the doctor’s prescription for
There has been discussion to have universal healthcare system similar to Medicare as a method to have a centralized monitoring system of cost. There have also been other systems tried beginning with HMOs in the 1970s in an effort to streamline access to necessary healthcare services by employing a gatekeeper to their access at the primary care levels. With patient dissatisfaction, PPOs were tried which circumvent the necessity of referrals (Hacker, 1998). Either of these models had substantial effect on healthcare outcomes while the cost of healthcare continued to skyrocket. The US spends more than any other country on healthcare but outcomes are not better (Blackstone, 2016). In 2010, under President Obama’s leadership, Affordable Care Act was passed and one of the promising features is the formation of accountable care
Medical costs are getting too expensive. Ever fought with your insurance providers because they refused to pay for care, or struggle to find an “in-network” provider? I know a woman whose name I will change for her privacy and the struggles she is going through are a perfect example of an issue many people face when dealing with insurance; Nancy’s (name changed for privacy) story is a perfect example of how our healthcare system is no longer working for the people. Nancy is this woman whose husband recently passed away. Nancy used to work for county and county workers cannot receive social security; and Nancy is too
The U.S. health care system is a scrutinized issue that affects everyone: young, old, rich, and poor. The health care system is comprised of three major components. Since 1973, most Americans have turned to managed-care programs, known as HMOs. The second type of health care offered to Americans is Medicare, health care for the elderly. The third type of health care is Medicaid, a health care program for the poor.
Managed care has been adopted into the government funded care organizations. Medicare managed care plans provide all coverage themselves, including basic Medicare coverage. Managed care plans cover above and beyond the basic benefits of Medicare, the size of premiums and copayments, and the decisions about paying for treatment are controlled by the managed care plan. The basic premise of managed care is that the member/patient agrees to receive care from only a specific doctors and hospitals, in exchange for reduced healthcare costs. Medicare, like other insurance companies offer plans that give Medicare beneficiaries more choices in coverage, like HMO or PPO. Managed care has been used since the mid 1990’s in order to provide healthcare to beneficiaries with serious or life long illnesses. Today, managed care has become a way for states to provide quality care to both Medicaid and Medicare patients.
(POS). There are over half of Americans with health insurance are enrolled in managed care
One of the greatest changes in healthcare in the past ten years has been the rise of managed care, much to the displeasure of many patients and physicians alike. Managed care arose out of concern about spiraling healthcare costs and was designed to encourage physicians to give patients treatments that were cost-effective out of their own financial interests. "The consumer strategy was directed at imposing some barriers to use by levying various forms of co-insurance. The most common approaches used either deductibles (where the consumer paid the first portion of the bill a technique familiar in other types of insurance) or co-payments (where the consumer paid a portion of the bill and the insurance company the rest) or a combination of both' (Kane et al 1994). Managed care has given health insurance companies an increasingly significant voice in how treatment is administered and allocated. Managed care has proliferated in the past decade despite considerable criticism of the practice of 'nickel and diming' patients as well as the considerable bureaucratic red tape it is has generated. Also, research indicates that healthy, well-insured patients tend to over-consume care without meaningful co-pays but poorer, sicker patients can be deterred even by moderate co-payments and suffer negative health consequences (Kane et al 1994). However, managed care has not gone away and is a reality that all healthcare
Managed care is the most dominant healthcare delivery system in the United States and available to most Americans. Employers and government are the primary financiers of managed care. The managed care sector includes approximately
There are many reasons as to why cost is such a major issue. For example, health care consumes a great percent of the total economic output. Also, resources are limited and other economic uses are curtailed. If limited resources are not directed to what is most important and used at their highest value (Bodenhiemier, 2009, p 1521), then public spending for health care will not be maintained. Corporations should bear the additional costs.
Health insurance is purchased in the private marketplace or provided by the government to certain groups. Private health insurance can be purchased from various for – profit commercial insurance companies or from non – profit insurers. The government has Medicaid for the low income and Medicare for the retires. A retiree may have both depending on the income and age and may also pick going ppo instead of hmo for and extra fee. Managed care organizations is a system used to manage the care in the united states and are defined as “systems that integrate the financing and delivery of appropriate health care services to covered individuals by means of: arrangements with selected providers to furnish a comprehensive set of health care services to members; explicit criteria for the selection of health care providers; formal programs for ongoing quality assurance and utilization review; and significant financial incentives for members to use providers and procedures associated with the plan. In the later year with have the called Obama care which is not government run health insurance system, this system forced residents to have health plan or will be
Managed care is a philosophy that tries to deliver health care to the population. Managed care organizations are the organizations that actually try apply this idea. It is the most dominant health care delivery subsystem in America and it is available to most Americans with the primary financiers being employers and the government. The idea of managed care works by employers and the government entering in a contract with MCOs