title: Managed care organizations: a link in the chain of survival?
abstract: Managed care organizations (MCOs) have proliferated throughout the United States. Interaction by patients, physicians, and emergency medical services systems with MCOs is evolving. Although MCOs have had some notable successes in reducing health care expenditures, the way in which MCO enrollees gain access to emergency medical care remains a contested issue. We present the cases of two patients who died after they delayed calling 911 in keeping with the rules of their MCO.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Albany Medical College, New York, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dickinson
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Verdile
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003645:Death, Sudden; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs; D013997:Time Factors