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"Managed care." Just
trying to define it presents a problem, because while everyone
knows what it means, it means different things to different people.
It means one thing to health care theorists, another to government
regulators; one thing to corporate purchasers of health plans, another to
corporate directors of HMOs; one thing to doctors, another to
patients. It even means one
thing to the healthy and another to the sick.
If you were a large
organization that needed to manipulate the American health
care system (an HMO, say, or the federal government), it would be
most
useful to have a central concept like "managed care," about which everybody
could communicate using the same terminology, but while meaning entirely
different things. Such a concept would come in very handy. It would allow you to say one
thing and mean quite another, thus keeping all your many constituents
(and all their conflicted interests) mollified.
But if you're merely an individual trying to guide
yourself or your family through a maze-like health plan, the
cultivated confusion about managed care is not so useful.
As part of our mission to help you
understand and survive the American health care system, YourDoctorintheFamily.com
explores
the many aspects of managed care. In The Secrets of Managed Care, we
reveal its many faces, teach you its secret languages, and show you how to
interpret all its assurances and promises.
In Portrait of a Modern HMO
we show you the practical aspects of managed care, demonstrating how it
really works in today's dysfunctional health care system.
And we
offer advice on surviving 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
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