Delivery of Health Care & Managed Care

Fiscal constraints have caused the United States Congress to initiate actions designed to change the Medicare and Medicaid programs as a way to save money in the form of federal government expenditures (Ellentuck, 1994, p. 78). A leading reform measure for the American health care system generally envisions the widespread implementation of the managed care concept (Kane, 1995, pp. 1690-1691). While managed care is hailed by proponents as a means of conserving health care dollars, many advocates for the elderly and the poor fear that the quality of health care provided to these population groups, and in turn, the quality of life of the majority of the members of these population groups may deteriorate substantially under a managed care regime (Aronson, 1995, pp. 213-231).

Reform of the health care system in the United States is a volatile issue. Costs are the primary concern of funding providers, while a continuation of the opportunity to earn profits is the primary concern of the health insurance industry, and increased acce

. . .
plementation of managed care (Blumenthal, 1996, pp. 170-184). One of the potential problems often cited with respect to the growing role of for-profit hospitals in the delivery of health care services in the United States is the tendency for such institutions to target only the most lucrative health care business. When for-profit hospitals are successful in this type of marketing effort, the non-profit hospital generally is burdened with the responsibility for providing health care services to those individuals in society who are least able to fund their own care. The fact that a large proportion of these individuals are not covered by hospitalization insurance, together with the increasing reluctance on the part of government to fully fund health care services, places an increasingly large responsibility on the non-profit institutions. In the delivery of health care services through non-profit or public sector organizations, it is not always possible to deliver all services, or to deliver specific services at the highest level (Kajander & Samuels, 1996, pp. 17-22). The reason for this situation involves the scarcity of resources, particularly financial resources. The positive side of managed care is that such institutions e
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Insurance Company, Hahn Flood, United Goldfield, Weingarten Ellrodt, Zwanziger Melnick, Medicare Medicaid, Kajander Samuels, Tischler Unutzer, Expenditure Survey, health care, , managed care, health insurance, health care reform, care reform, 1995 pp, practice guidelines, insurance type, health insurance type, 1996 pp, health care system, care concept, managed care concept, levels health, hahn flood 1995,
Approximate Word count = 2486
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Delivery of Health Care & Managed Care