title: A history of medical payments: continuity or crisis?
abstract: The form and amount of medical payments has been a contentious issue throughout the history of Western medicine. The prices charged by doctors, and the actual payments they receive, have reflected a complex interaction of the social, economic, and political forces impinging upon medical practice. Contemporary concerns about the medical payment system in the U.S. relate, in part, to the unprecedented scale and complexity of the modern system of medical payments. Historical analysis reminds us that medicine and money have always made odd bedfellows. Today's problems may seem intractable, but such problems have been consistent throughout medical history.
authors.affiliation: College of Liberal Arts, Quinnipiac University, CL-AC3, 275 Mt. Carmel Ave., Hamden, CT 06518, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Valone
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000266:history; D005251:Fees, Medical / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010822:Physicians, Women / Q000266:history; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D014481:United States