title: Gatekeeping--clinical and administrative issues.
abstract: Most gatekeeper-based models of health care delivery utilize primary care physicians for authorizing services, screening referrals, managing cases and monitoring costs. Issues in four major areas related to gatekeeping have arisen in such systems: those affecting patients primarily, those affecting physicians primarily, those related to administering the gatekeeping function and, finally, those issues related to the health care system as a whole.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000191:economics*; D014861:Washington