Outcomes assessment in health care reform

limitations. (Quality of Care and Health Reform:

Complementary or Conflicting)

Citation: American Journal of Law & Medicine, Spring-Summer 1994 20

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Subjects: Health care reform_Economic aspects

Medical care_Quality control

Medical care, Cost of_Research

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Abstract: Outcomes assessment should be encouraged as an effective means of controlling medical care costs and ensuring that patients receive proper medical care. Medicine has not given sufficient attention to comparing the costs and qualities of care for different treatments. Outcome assessment can determine when certain services are necessary, improve public information, assure that standards are met for malpractice avoidance and define the scope of care provided under medical plans. Outcome determination can be a vital part of health care reform.

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Full Text COPYRIGHT American Society of Law & Medicine Inc. 1994

If the fundamental goals of the health care reform effort are to ensure universal access to an acceptable quality of health care at an affordable cost, then the threshold question for reform is: Wha

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essive use of services.(33) Such a physician's decision not to perform a particular test or recommend a particular therapy could be seen as unduly influenced by his or her own financial rewards. If patients are to make knowledgeable decisions based, in part, on cost, then they should be entitled to know whether a physician's recommendation is influenced by cost factors unrelated to the patient's condition. Other factors, in addition to compensation, might also create a conflict of interest, influence a physician's decision, and warrant disclosure.(34) Merely disclosing potential conflicts of interest does not necessarily prevent abuses of patient trust, however.(35) Various forms of disclosure have been required under federal and state consumer protection laws, and laws governing conflicts of interest among public employees, corporate directors, and securities dealers.(36) Apart from ethical rules for lawyers perhaps, disclosure alone has not been a wholly effective means of protecting consumers against self-dealing. Although patients are often called consumers today, they are necessarily far less knowledgeable about health care than about financial matters. They are rarely equipped to judge the implications for them of confl
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Some common words found in the essay are:
POLICY OPTIONS, Institutes Health, Payment System, ROLE GOVERNMENT, PROGENY Outcomes, DECISIONS Medicaid, CARE DECISIONS, PERSPECTIVE Patients, Drug Administration, UNDERLYING RESEARCH, health care, outcomes assessment, practice guidelines, quality care, medical practice, practice policies, patient care, outcomes research, practice standards, et al, health care system, health care services, health care reform, patient care decisions, health care facilities,
Approximate Word count = 9625
Approximate Pages = 39 (250 words per page)

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