Managed care is simply a system that delivers health care to a specific population purchased through health insurance plans. Practitioners and providers manage the use of health care services and cost by providing effective diagnosis and treatment, appropriate use of inpatient and outpatients facilities, population-based planning, health promotion and education, and disease prevention. Managed care uses a “gatekeeper” system, where patients or beneficiaries are assigned a Primary Care Physician (PCP), who they see initially for all medical care. The PCP acts as a gatekeeper by initiating referrals to specialists when required and approving inpatient admissions. Managed care was seen across communities in America as early as the 19th century and by 1938, Henry Kaiser had adopted a pre-paid medical plan for his employees. During World War II Kaiser used pre-paid medical programs for his workers and after the war he opened these plans to the public, which became the Kaiser Permanente we know today. Pre-paid healthcare and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) came into full use in the 1970’s when the federal government established grants and loans as part of a health care strategy to provide care for uninsured Americans by increasing the number of HMO, increasing enrollment, and containing the cost of healthcare. Since the 70’s employers have used managed care as a form of high quality low cost insurance for their employees and the federal government has turned to managed care for both Medicare and Medicaid programs. Managed care, managed care has become the dominant health care delivery source. Gaining popularity in 1990s, managed care increased from 27% in 1988 to 99% in 2009 and enrollment in Fee for Service plans decli... ... middle of paper ... ...ystem have started implementing or planning for a resurgence of Medical Home, using a primary care physician and a team of health care professionals providing or facilitating health care to a group of patients (Meyer, 2009). Medical home has proven to provide cost savings to the HMOs that employs the concept, Illinois Health Connect saved 140 million dollar in 2009 for the state by enrolling state Medicaid patients into the program (Japsen, 2010). Managed care needs to refocus on what made it successful in the beginning and using healthcare reform as a reason to change move to the next phase of managed care, medical homes. Will managed care survive? If plans remain flexible, continue to provide quality service, and remain low cost yes but if they continue to become more like the antiquated insurances plans they nearly drove to extinction then the answer is NO.
The strategic plan for 2015 led to a membership growth of 650,000 members. The main internal driver for the astounding growth, being managed care offered at 20% to 25% less than the surrounding competitors (Brooking Institution, 2015). The more membership growth the more profitable Kaiser becomes based managed care system. Kaiser Permanente’s growth can be related to high scores amongst CMS and it’s highly recommended operation structure amongst the healthcare industry. According to the CMS “2016 Star Ratings Fact Sheet,” Kaiser Permanente represents five of 12 medicare health plans (with Parts C and D) that earned 5 stars — and of the 1.6 million beneficiaries enrolled in those 5-star plans nationwide, 81 percent are Kaiser Permanente Medicare members (Kaiser press release). The Kaiser Permanente Medicare plans since 2009 have always been operating at a high performance
The health care organization with which I am familiar and involved is Kaiser Permanente where I work as an Emergency Room Registered Nurse and later promoted to management. Kaiser Permanente was founded in 1945, is the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plan, serving 9.1 million members, with headquarters in Oakland, California. At Kaiser Permanente, physicians are responsible for medical decisions, continuously developing and refining medical practices to ensure that care is delivered in the most effective manner possible. Kaiser Permanente combines a nonprofit insurance plan with its own hospitals and clinics, is the kind of holistic health system that President Obama’s health care law encourages. It still operates in a half-dozen states from Maryland to Hawaii and is looking to expand...
It is enthralling to note that in spite of the advances in healthcare systems, such as our hospital’s ability to provide patients with lower cost, managed One being the Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO), which was first proposed in the 1960s by Dr. Paul Elwood in the "Health Maintenance Strategy”. The HMO concept was created to decrease increasing health care costs and was set in law as the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, after promotion from the Nixon Administration. HMO would, in exchange for a fee, allow members access to employed physicians and facilities. In return, the HMO received market access and could earn federal development funds.
Davidson, Stephen M. Still Broken: Understanding the U.S. Health Care System. Stanford, CA: Stanford Business, 2010. Print.
Health Maintenance Organizations, or HMO’s, are a very important part of the American health care system. Also referred to as managed care programs, HMO's are combinations of doctors and insurance companies that are formed into one organization. This organization provides treatment to its members at fixed costs and decides on what treatment, if any, will be given based on the patient's or doctor's current health plan. Sometimes, no treatment is given at all. HMO's main concerns are to control costs and supposedly provide the best possible treatment to their patients. But it seems to the naked eye that instead their main goal is to get more people enrolled so that they can maintain or raise current premiums paid by consumers using their service. For HMO's, profit comes first- not patients' lives.
A managed care organization is a collection of clinics, doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and other healthcare providers who come together to offer health care to persons who are sign up for the services. In many cases, managed care organizations operate and are referred to as networks of health care providers. Managed care organizations are comprised of health care experts from different fields who come under an agreement to offer health care services to members. Once a member signs up, all their heath care needs are covered by the managed care organizations. Access to care outside the organization is restricted. Members under managed care organizations are usually assigned a primary care physician (PCP) who is the primary care giver for the member. The PCP is tasked with analyzing a member’s health problem before referring them to other sections of the managed care organization. Managed Care Organizations are usually well coordinated to meet the needs of members who have registered under their banner.
Medicare and Medicaid together "are the single biggest contributor to [the United States] long term [budget] deficit." This idea was expressed by President Obama during his 2011 state of the Union Speech. After saying this, the president said that health care costs need to be reduced, including these two services. Medicare and Medicaid are beneficial to those who receive their services, and the criteria for eligibility currently allow many to qualify for either program. This is most likely the cause of the major deficit that the president spoke of. However, downsizing or eliminating these programs to lessen the deficit will affect many people and their ability to receive healthcare.
In the United Sates the current form of managed care is a response to a system in which the controlled cost is a direct response to the purchaser. With principles of a managed health care system that is able to monitor the coordination of all services, places and emphasis on health education, encourages the appropriate care be provided, all in a cost effective manner. This principles have in turn given the consumer the capacity to demand health care services through an “illness based” or “wellness based” delivery system.
Medicare and Medicaid are two of the United States largest broken systems, which must sustain themselves in order to provide care to their beneficiaries. Both Medicare and Medicaid are funding by a joint effort between the federal government and the local state government. If and when these governments choose to cut funding or reduce spending, Medicare and Medicaid take the biggest hit. Most people see these two benefits as one in the same, two benefits the government takes out of their pay check to help fund health care. While the government does deduct a sum from paychecks everywhere, Medicare and Medicaid are very two very different programs.
To address these issues, the federal government and states have implemented a variety of reforms and initiatives to improve the program’s efficiency and effectiveness. One of the most important of these is the requirement for states to implement managed care programs for Medicaid beneficiaries. Managed care programs are designed to improve the quality of care and reduce costs by coordinating and managing healthcare services for Medicaid beneficiaries
Managed care is one of the leading form health care in the United States. It has become very popular and many people in the United States have taken advantage of it. There are a few different types of managed care programs: Health Maintenance Organizations or HMOs, Preferred Provider Organizations or PPOs, and Point of Service Plans or POSs. Each one of these types of managed care plans has its pros and cons (Cyrene, 2015). If you would ask a few people what types of insurance they have, they are more than likely going to name off a managed care plan because it is more common to find someone with a managed care plan than not. Managed care has changed the healthcare system in many ways, some for the good and
Medicare and Medicaid are programs that have been developed to assist Americans in attainment of quality health care. Both programs were established in 1965 and are federally supported to provide health care coverage to vulnerable populations such as the elderly, the disabled, and people with low incomes. Both Medicare and Medicaid are federally mandated and determine coverage under each program; both are run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal agency ("What is Medicare? What is Medicaid?” 2008).
In the past when there were no managed care plans the beneficiaries would be allowed to go to any doctors, now because of managed care they have one primary doctor who manages their care and refer them to other types of doctors if necessary. Managed care has its pros and cons, in one way it is good to have one doctor taking care of you all the time but at the same time it is very restricting when you either want or must go outside of your network. In my opinion, I do not care for managed care because of an experience I had over 20 years ago. My daughter was a child and had an asthma attack, the ambulance took me to a nearby hospital but when I called to alert my managed care on her condition, they told me I had to go to another hospital that
The first example of managed care in the form of a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) dates back to 1910 in the state of Washington, but major growth and development in managed care programs was between 1985 and 2000 (The Origins of Managed Care, 2007). The goal of managed care is to control health care costs, but at the same time deliver a high quality of care, typically within a network of providers (Managed Care, 2015). Americans 65 years old and older rely on Medicare for insurance. As part of the Balance Budget Act of 1997, Medicare beneficiaries were offered a choice to get Medicare Part C from private insurers, consequently changes were made to these plans in 2003, and the managed care plans for Medicare recipients
The United States health care system is one of the most expensive systems in the world yet it is known as being unorganized and chaotic in comparison to other countries (Barton, 2010). This factor is attributed to numerous characteristics that define what the U.S. system is comprised of. Two of the major indications are imperfect market conditions and the demand for new technology (Barton, 2010). The health care system has been described as a free market in