Managed Care As A Public Cost Containment Mechanism

This article identifies the impact of managed-care reforms on the utilization of medical services within the military health-services system. The data come from a recent demonstration project that substituted a health maintenance organization (HMO) and preferred provider organization (PPO) for traditional fee-for-service (FFS) arrangements. Results from a semiparametric model indicate that the generosity of benefits in the HMO increased demand for ambulatory services. Unlike the private-sector experience with managed care, aggressive utilization review did not significantly curtail inpatient stays. These results vitiate the presumed effectiveness of reform strategies that rely on large, geographically diffused managed-care networks to contain public-sector health costs.

Representatives of industry, government, caregivers, and consumers join scholars and policy analysts in comparing market forces to regulation as potential means for righting what is wrong with managed care. The contributors that John E. Billi and Gail B. Agrawal have gathered here quickly move the healthcare debate beyond the classroom, think tank, and statehouse to the boardroom and examining room. Some argue strongly that the solution is to be found in the democratic process and government intervention, while others maintain that only market forces in a competitive environment can respond quickly to the needs of consumers and purchasers alike. The contributors' diverse opinions about the oversight of managed care reflect an enduring divide, one that will affect how society ultimately resolves questions about the inevitable tradeoffs among health-care quality, cost, and access in an environment of limited resources. The Challenge of Regulating Managed Care will appeal to policymakers, those in the medical field, and all readers interested in the American experience with managed care. John E. Billi is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Education; Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, University of Michigan Medical School; and Associate Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Michigan. Gail B. Agrawal is Associate Professor of Law, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Managed care has produced dramatic changes in the treatment of mental health and substance abuse problems, known as behavioral health. Managing Managed Care offers an urgently needed assessment of managed care for behavioral health and a framework for purchasing, delivering, and ensuring the quality of behavioral health care. It presents the first objective analysis of the powerful multimillion-dollar accreditation industry and the key accrediting organizations. Managing Managed Care draws evidence-based conclusions about the effectiveness of behavioral health treatments and makes recommendations that address consumer protections, quality improvements, structure and financing, roles of public and private participants, inclusion of special populations, and ethical issues. The volume discusses trends in managed behavioral health care, highlighting the emerging role of the purchaser. The committee explores problems of overlap and fragmentation in the delivery of behavioral health care and discusses the issue of access, a special concern when private systems are restricted and public systems overburdened. Highly applicable to the larger health care system, this volume will be of particular interest to all stakeholders in behavioral healthâ€"federal and state policymakers, public and private purchasers, health care providers and administrators, consumers and consumer advocates, accrediting organizations, and health services researchers.

Provides an overview of healthcare spending and the cost-containment mechanisms that have lead to an increasingly corporate style of healthcare in the US. It also looks at what happens to doctor-patient relationships in a managed care system and how good doctor-patient relationships could contribute to health promotion and to social capital. The book concludes with policy implications, including the applicability of lessons to other areas, such as environmental protection and policing.

This book traces the growth of managed care as a mechanism for curbing excessive growth in health costs, and the controversies that have risen around for-profit health care. Also examined are decentralization in US health care, and the absence of comprehensive health care planning, access rules, and minimum health care benefit standards. Finally, the author proposes a framework for improving access to quality, affordable health care in a competitive market environment.