Managing Care: A Shared Responsibility

The goal of this book is to propose an alternative approach to address the problem of the exponential rise of health care costs, and, more importantly, to address the lingering dilemma of how to establish broadly agreed-upon fundamental guidelines by which health care can be managed in a manner that is more morally appropriate. Although in no way a new concept, the notion that society's financial resources, even when it comes to health care, are indeed limited is one with which the general public has grown increasingly familiar only during the past two decades. Familiarity, however, does not automatically imply public appreciation for the strategies that have been implemented to curb the problems of health care. These strategies have customarily been designed to change the distribution of health care, such as by limiting patient choices, reducing access, lowering utilization, increasing premiums, requiring higher deductibles, or shifting financial responsibilities. In other words, the main focus has been on making the patient, or as the commodity market would say, the consumer, more responsible.

Part 1. Health Care Costs and Scarcity. Introduction. - Development of Managed Care. - Rationing: A Dilemma for Ethicists. - Responsibility. - Part 2. The Concept of Managed Care and its Practical Implications. - Introduction. - Quality of Care in Managed Care. - History of Managed Care. - Where Does Managed Care Find its Market. - Definition of Managed Care. - Managed Care as Unknown Territory. - Methodological Concerns Regarding Data Collection. - Population-Based Distribution and Individual Autonomy. - Balancing Responsibilities. - Changes in Managed Care. - Part 3. Ideology: The Silent Partner. - Introduction. - The Concept of Ideology. - Ideology In Medicine. - The Context of Scarcity and its Ideological Impact on Health Care. - Conclusion. - Part 4. Concept of Genuine Responsibility. - Introduction. - Changing the Focus In Health Care Distribution. - The Notion of Responsibility. - Justice And Health Care. - Key Presumptions. - Part 5: Revising The Template For Modeling Health Care. - Introduction. - Necessity For Change. - Defining Health And Health Care. - The Main Parties Involved. - Part 6: Theoretical Reflections. - Introduction. - Managed Care. - The Problem: Who Is Responsible For What? - Justice As Appropriation. - A Template For Responsible Healthcare Distribution. - Part 7: Implementation In U. S. Health Care System: Challenges And Opportunities. - Introduction. - Changing The Views on Business And Profits. - Individual Entitlement And Social Justice. - The Role of Government. - Health Care Planning. - Health Care Budgeting. - Special Interest Groups And Policy Making. - The Minimum Health Care Benefit Package. - The Contribution of Evidence Based Medicine. - Bibliography. - Index.