title: The doctor-patient relationship in the post-managed care era.
abstract: The growth of managed care was accompanied by concern about the impact that changes in health care organization would have on the doctor-patient relationship (DPR). We now are in a "post-managed care era," where some of these changes in health care delivery have come to pass while others have not. A re-examination of the DPR in this setting suggests some surprising results. Rather than posing a new and unprecedented threat, managed care was simply the most recent of numerous strains on the DPR that have occurred throughout the century. These strains are a constant, inevitable consequence of the varying needs and concerns of patient and physicians as they seek to balance their desires for a certain type of DPR with their simultaneous desire for other aspects of care such as lower costs, greater technological sophistication, and improved outcomes.
authors.affiliation: The University of Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: G Caleb
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lantos
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000941:ethics* / Q000639:trends