The Metamorphosis of Managed Care

42 Pages Posted: 14 Feb 2010 Last revised: 19 Apr 2013

See all articles by Marc A. Rodwin

Marc A. Rodwin

Suffolk University Law School; Harvard University - Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics

Date Written: January 30, 2010

Abstract

The conventional wisdom is that managed care’s brief life is over and we are now in a post-managed care era. In fact, managed care has a long history and continues to thrive. Writers also often assume that managed care is a fixed thing. They overlook that managed care has evolved and neglect to examine the role that it plays in the health system. Furthermore, private actors and the state have used managed care tools to promote diverse goals. These include: increasing access to medical care; restricting physician entrepreneurialism; challenging professional control over the medical economy; curbing medical spending; managing medical practice and markets; furthering the growth of medical markets and private insurance; promoting for-profit medical facilities and insurers; earning bounties for reducing medical expenditures; and reducing governmental responsibility for, and oversight of, medical care. Struggles over these competing goals spurred the metamorphosis of managed care. This article explores how managed care transformed physicians’ conflicts of interests and responses to them. It also examines how managed care altered the opportunities for patients/medical consumers to use exit and voice to spur change.

Keywords: managed care, HMO, conflicts of interest, patients' rights, consumer health, globalization, France, Japan, exit, voice, health insurance, health economics, health care financing

Suggested Citation

Rodwin, Marc A., The Metamorphosis of Managed Care (January 30, 2010). Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, Forthcoming, Suffolk University Law School Research Paper No. 10-07, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1551314

Marc A. Rodwin (Contact Author)

Suffolk University Law School ( email )

120 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02108-4977
United States
617-573-8354 (Phone)
617-305-3087 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.suffolk.edu/faculty/directories/faculty.cfm?InstructorID=48

Harvard University - Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics ( email )

124 Mount Auburn Street
Suite 520N
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
148
Abstract Views
1,021
Rank
356,899
PlumX Metrics