As costs associated with the delivery of health care services soared in the 1980s, third party funders, health care providers, and users of health care services sought to develop and implement procedures and programs which would either sta bilize costs or reduce the rate of increase. Health care ser vices funded by government received special scrutiny.
One of the cost control techniques developed and imple mented by government was the requirement for a second concur ring opinion for surgical procedures proposed Medicaid funded patients. This current study attempted to assess the efficacyof this cost control technique.Problem Description
Approximately 60 percent of the American population is covered by private health care insurance programs (Congres sional Budget Office, 1989). Most of these programs the very great majority are either fully or partly funded by employers, while the remainder are funded fully by the covered individuals and families. For the remaining 40 percent of the population,
the delivery of health care services is either (1) funded by the federal government (for approximately 25 percent of the population, primarily through the Medicaid program), or by individuals and families in the financial position to pay for health care services at the time of delivery, or (2) deferred. When all is said and done, approximately 12 percent of the country's population is without any formal health care insur ance coverage (Minahan, 1989; Rosen, Fanshel, & Lutz, 1989), although some estimates of this proportion are higher (Demko vitch, 1981). Further, in most cases, such individuals are not in a financial position to fund such services as required. With the size of the American population estimated at 250 mil lion (Bureau of the Census, 1989), the 12 percent without for mal health care insurance translates into approximately 30 mil lion people.
This current study was generally concerned with the approximately 60 ...