In respecting persons, we must work to restore patient autonomy and therefore, consent becomes an interactive and interpersonal process. Rehabilitation generally takes a team approach to caregiving. This integration of caregiving facilitates respect for the patient as he or she is not fragmented into diagnostic categories and treatment patterns based upon organ systems. Most of us will be disabled at some point. Thus, rehabilitation care raises important questions concerning the continuity of personal identity and invites us to revisit our cultural presuppositions about quality of life.
Rehabilitation brings the political dimensions of healthcare to the fore.
The current trend in healthcare financing is toward managed care schemes. Managed care emphasizes outcomes and reimburses based on these. However, rehabilitation care emphasizes processes and notes that outcomes are not always clear, fixed points. As a result, rehabilitation care challenges the very presuppositions of managed care financing. Professor Scofield suggested that claims brought against insurers under the Americans with Disabilities Act might cause a rethinking of the current financing schemes.