|
HMOs are among the most perplexing
of today's health care institutions.
HMOs were conceptualized decades ago,
mainly by academics and policy experts, as new a way of delivering health care.
As originally conceived, a population of
subscribers would have all their health care provided by a panel of
caring HMO physicians and top-notch institutions, all working
together under the umbrella of efficiency and quality, and all of which
would be made possible by the assiduous application classic managed care
concepts. Have I mentioned that academics and policy experts often
have little real world experience?
In any case, that's not exactly what we have
today.
As part of our mission to help you
understand and survive the American health care system, YourDoctorintheFamily.com
shows
you how far from this original vision our present day HMOs have
drifted. In Portrait of a Modern HMO
we depict an imaginary, yet completely believable, modern
for-profit HMO - one that is typical of the HMOs that rose to
prominence after the
demise of the Clinton health plan. We demonstrate how modern HMOs
behave, and why they behave that way. Indeed, we try to show how their maddening, frustrating and
seemingly inexplicable behaviors are actually quite reasonable and
predictable when you consider their true mission (which is, of
course, to make money.)
Since HMOs
supposedly embody the concepts of managed care, also check out Secrets of Managed Care,
to see how the original concepts of managed care have been usurped
and corrupted by both governmental regulators and free-marketeers.
And we
offer advice on surviving as a patient in such a system:
Don't thank us. It's what we do.
We're your
on-line guide to understanding and
surviving the American health care system.
YourDoctorintheFamily.com
Home Page
|