Health Insurance and Managed Care: What They Are and How They Work is a concise introduction to the workings of health insurance and managed care within the American health care system. Written in clear and accessible language, this text offers an historical overview of managed care before walking the reader through the organizational structures, concepts, and practices of the health insurance and managed care industry. The Fifth Edition is a thorough update that addresses the current status of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), including political pressures that have been partially successful in implementing changes. This new edition also explores the changes in provider payment models and medical management methodologies that can affect managed care plans and health insurer.

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The American health care industry has undergone such dizzying transformations since the 1960s that many patients have lost confidence in a system they find too impersonal and ineffectual. Is their distrust justified and can confidence be restored? David Dranove, a leading health care economist, tackles these and other key questions in the first major economic and historical investigation of the field. Focusing on the doctor-patient relationship, he begins with the era of the independently practicing physician--epitomized by Marcus Welby, the beloved father figure/doctor in the 1960s television show of the same name--who disappeared with the growth of managed care. Dranove guides consumers in understanding the rapid developments of the health care industry and offers timely policy recommendations for reforming managed care as well as advice for patients making health care decisions. The book covers everything from start-up troubles with the first managed care organizations to attempts at government regulation to the mergers and quality control issues facing MCOs today. It also reflects on how difficult it is for patients to shop for medical care. Up until the 1970s, patients looked to autonomous physicians for recommendations on procedures and hospitals--a process that relied more on the patient's trust of the physician than on facts, and resulted in skyrocketing medical costs. Newly emerging MCOs have tried to solve the shopping problem by tracking the performance of care providers while obtaining discounts for their clients. Many observers accuse MCOs of caring more about cost than quality, and argue for government regulation. Dranove, however, believes that market forces can eventually achieve quality care and cost control. But first, MCOs must improve their ways of measuring provider performance, medical records must be made more complete and accessible (a task that need not compromise patient confidentiality), and patients must be willing to seek and act on information about the best care available. Dranove argues that patients can regain confidence in the medical system, and even come to trust MCOs, but they will need to rely on both their individual doctors and their own consumer awareness.

Managed care has produced dramatic changes in the treatment of mental health and substance abuse problems, known as behavioral health. Managing Managed Care offers an urgently needed assessment of managed care for behavioral health and a framework for purchasing, delivering, and ensuring the quality of behavioral health care. It presents the first objective analysis of the powerful multimillion-dollar accreditation industry and the key accrediting organizations. Managing Managed Care draws evidence-based conclusions about the effectiveness of behavioral health treatments and makes recommendations that address consumer protections, quality improvements, structure and financing, roles of public and private participants, inclusion of special populations, and ethical issues. The volume discusses trends in managed behavioral health care, highlighting the emerging role of the purchaser. The committee explores problems of overlap and fragmentation in the delivery of behavioral health care and discusses the issue of access, a special concern when private systems are restricted and public systems overburdened. Highly applicable to the larger health care system, this volume will be of particular interest to all stakeholders in behavioral healthâ€"federal and state policymakers, public and private purchasers, health care providers and administrators, consumers and consumer advocates, accrediting organizations, and health services researchers.

Today, employed physicians and independent physicians alike feel powerless. Hospital-employed doctors feel like cogs in a machine, and community doctors are increasingly threatened by forces beyond their control. Physician-led healthcare reform would give them back a large measure of control and pride in their work. The Medicare for All debate has mostly focused on how the U.S. should finance healthcare. This book, directed to physicians, healthcare administrators, health policy experts, politicians, and consumers, explains why the U.S. healthcare delivery system must be restructured to lower costs--and how to do it. Unless we can get doctors to change how they practice, Medicare for All will struggle with the same cost pressures that have made our system the most expensive in the world. The biggest problems of physicians--both employed and independent--are a loss of professional autonomy, overwhelming administrative requirements, and the conflict between business and patient care imperatives. From the Foreword "With this manual, leaders of health systems and medical groups can achieve these goals and align their physicians, management, care teams, payers, and patients to deliver exceptional care that will improve quality while lowering costs, resulting in better care, better patient experience, and more affordable health care." This book, at this critical time, offers a comprehensive argument in favor of physician-led reform. Table of Contents Chapter 1 - Medicare for All Lives Chapter 2 - Obamacare: A Work in Progress Chapter 3 - Industry Consolidation on Steriods Chapter 4 - Primary Care on The Ropes Chapter 5 - Waste Not, Want Not Chapter 6 - Population Health Management Chapter 7 - Addressing Social Determinants of Health Chapter 8 - Physician-led Healthcare Reform Chapter 9 - Building the New Delivery System Chapter 10 - Taking Advantage of Health IT Chapter 11 - The Payoff Chapter 12 - Drugs and the Technology Challenge Final Thoughts

David Samuels, a leading authority on financial models in healthcare, draws on his multidisciplinary background in all aspects of managed care to provide an expansive yet detailed perspective of this complex field. Grounded in evidence-based modeling, the book’s multidisciplinary focus puts the spotlight on core concepts from the standpoints of health plans, hospitals, physician practice, and their respective integrated network models. You’ll learn what happened when a country’s national health care plan is developed with problematic underwriting, why hospitals will always be victimized at their payer’s bargaining table, and even how to improve the current primary care shortage at both 50% less provider costs as well as with triple their members’ compliance in wellness care. The book gives you the critical tools to stay ahead of the learning curve, engage patients to take responsibility for their own and their family’s health status, and improve your differentiation in a RAPIDLY changing marketplace.