Public hospitals and managed care.
Managed health care is used increasingly in the public and private sectors to control rising health-care costs and to assure quality of care. While current proposals for health-care reform promote even wider application of managed care as a component in cost control, the formal use of managed care by public hospitals has not been fully explored. This article identifies possible reasons for providing managed care within a public-hospital system, explores the implications of managed care for public hospitals and their patients, and addresses some of the barriers to implementing managed care in a traditional public-hospital setting.
Curry
R H
RH
Division of Health Services and Policy Research, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30303-3219.
Rafferty
M P
MP
Huckaby
S K
SK
Johnson
R B
RB
Robitscher
J W
JW
D003363:Cost Control; D005544:Forecasting; D017048:Health Care Costs; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008489:Medical Indigency; D011203:Poverty; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States