Who Loses The main purpose for all health care professions is service for the patient. It is the patient who should be at the epicenter of all health care attention. States passed legislation restricting health care practice to only licensed individuals. Because, the states wanted to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens from unqualified persons. Patients are now viewed no differently than a product within a manufacturing plant.
Costs become the key element in decision making.
The managed care organizations will tell you about the need for quality and how quality patient care can be achieved, and at the same time cut costs. I might add that this premise has not been proved in any state in our nation, nor region in the United States. MCOs can save money by withholding treatment and forcing patients to pay out of pocket, but this is cost shifting, not successful managed care. This is inevitable and will escalate as long as MBAs and not doctors make health care decisions. Unfortunately the HMOs have it upside down.