¶ … managed care has now permeated the general atmosphere of health care and the healing process in society. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the evolution of managed care and its practices and how they impact profession of health care and its subsidiaries. This essay will include personal opinion on these impacts and discuss how managed care in its current status is not aligned with many of my beliefs and values.
Evolution of Managed Care
The nature of modern managed care is very invasive and permeates deeply throughout society and law. Managed care spans a wide range of entities, organizations and influences. They are often heavily regulated, managed and studied. Managed care entities have grown and evolved significantly in the past decades. There are many reasons to why managed care as evolved in this manner and how these causes have materialized into effects that have placed many challenges in the face of health care professionals in today's competitive and often money centered culture as it applies to healing and health care.
The idea of some other entity having significant decision making power in something so personal as health care is at the core of the debate for the value of managed care and its place in society. Sloan & Hall (2002) agreed with this summation when they wrote " sources of dissatisfaction with managed care are well documented. Although most consumers are satisfied with their actual experiences with managed care plans, and the observable quality of care remains high, the public has a generalized concern that managed care plans will lower quality of care, in part by restricting access to beneficial...
The creation of these managed care planning organizations were market driven and were tailored to minimize financial risks when dealing with
health issues. Employers, individuals and insurance companies all became very competitive with one another to minimize their own personal
risk in the equation. As a result, a skewed and unfair market was soon monopolized and managed care organizations were created to mediate this effect.
Managed care organizations are therefore used as creative consultants to help minimize costs, many times at the risk of the consumer or patient. Deom et al. (2010) documented in their research that "doctors may believe that utilization review will reduce total health care expenditures but that quality of care and access to treatments may suffer. In addition to quality and costs, managed care tools may also have an impact on doctors'
autonomy and on their relationships with patients." This impact on the profession leaves a dearth of
leadership and questions the
authority of many trained physicians and creates a sense of helplessness in many ways.
Opinions On The Impacts
The
health care system is in a current of upheaval and confusion which serves to usher in new and necessary practices and eliminate those practices that have been detrimental to the profession. The impact of
technology has provided great leaps in knowledge and
learning. The ability for the
medical profession to keep up with these discoveries has left many in general panic about the actual lack of control that humanity may have on its evolution.
As a result a trend…
