This collection provides a philosophical and historical analysis of the development and current situation of managed care. It discusses the relationship between physician professionalism and patient rights to affordable, high quality care. Its special feature is its depth of analysis as the philosophical, social, and economic issues of managed care are developed. It will be of interest to educated readers in their role as patients and to all levels of medical and health care professionals.

Glaser and Hamel offer readers an opportunity to step back from the ethical issues connected with modern health care and reflect on what we are doing, how we are doing it, and what impact our actions (and omissions) are having on the common good. While offering a new ethical paradigm that takes into account the three realms of ethical complexity (societal issues, institutional issues, and individual issues), this book offers articles for reflection and self-examination on various aspects of managed care, taking into account specific issues such as rationing, financial incentives, and full disclosure.

This book traces the growth of managed care as a mechanism for curbing excessive growth in health costs, and the controversies that have risen around for-profit health care. Also examined are decentralization in US health care, and the absence of comprehensive health care planning, access rules, and minimum health care benefit standards. Finally, the author proposes a framework for improving access to quality, affordable health care in a competitive market environment.

The Ethics of Managed CareA Pragmatic Approach Mary R. Anderlik A breakthrough reappraisal of the managed healthcare debate. Discussions of managed care frequently begin and end with an opposition between the Hippocratic ethic of dedication to patient welfare and a business ethic of self-interest in the service of efficiency. Mary R. Anderlik approaches managed care as a problem of organizations. Rejecting a simple "medicine vs. business" analysis, she directs attention to management as manipulation, the neglect of such personal goods as satisfaction in professional accomplishment, and organizational moral myopia. In this account, "pragmatic" suggests practical idealism, not the jettisoning of principle in the interests of expediency. In The Ethics of Managed Care, Anderlik favors a broad empiricism and a moral vision centered on values of democracy and community. She describes how organizations can nourish or destroy openness, creativity, cooperation, and faithfulness -- and display "virtues" such as justice, integrity, responsiveness, and efficiency, rightly understood. She uses community care clinics, asthma outreach programs, and new contexts for participatory decision-making to show the promise of managed care. She also explains the complexities of financial arrangements, arguing for an end to schemes that reward clinicians for providing less care and profiting from avoiding people who need a lot of it. The book concludes with a look at the future of managed care, proposing a program for reform. Mary R. Anderlik is Research Professor at the Health Law and Policy Institute, University of Houston Law Center. Medical Ethics SeriesDavid H. Smith and Robert M. Veatch, editors April 2001352 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4cloth 0-253-33848-4 $39.95 s / £30.50

A review of the complex ethical problems that confront many professionals and decision makers in managed care systems.

Integrating Managed Care and Ethics addresses legal and ethical challenges that arise in managed care and includes a discussion of trends, alluding to recent legislative/ regulatory initiatives, major legal cases, and examines guidance offered through several of the major healthcare trade associations. Its goal is to help the reader develop increased talent, tools, and techniques to help transform challenges and change into more positive outcomes.

Through twenty case studies that illustrate a wide range of ethical challenges, this book explores the goals, methods, and practices of managed care, and offers practical guidance for addressing the ethical and policy issues inherent in such a system.