title: Public hospitals and managed care.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Health Services and Policy Research, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30303-3219.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Curry
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Rafferty
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Huckaby
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Robitscher
mesh_terms: 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