Consolidation and restructuring: the next step in managed care.
Rising expenditures on health care in the U.S. have been facilitated by the fundamental problems of asymmetric information and insurance-induced moral hazard. If managed care is to succeed, it must take both into account through strategies such as information-based consumer education and provider risk-sharing. Because larger networks offer significant advantages in implementing such strategies, hospital mergers, physician-hospital alliances, and economies of scale are major trends in the evolution of managed care.
Danzon
P M
PM
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA.
Boothman
L G
LG
Greenberg
P E
PE
D019058:Community Networks / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / Q000191:economics; D004465:Economic Competition; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006273:Health Facility Merger / Q000191:economics*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006759:Hospital-Physician Joint Ventures; D015273:Insurance Selection Bias; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems / Q000191:economics; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012308:Risk Management; D014481:United States