All rights reserved.
Practice guidelines are an increasingly relevant feature of health insurance.
Traditionally, this coverage was provided by employers purchasing a group contract under which an insurance carrier provided indemnity coverage for employees that is, the insurance company paid all usual, customary, and reasonable charges incurred by an employee for medical care, subject in some cases to an annual deductible and to a percentage of covered expenses, co-paid by the employee, for each service. Unfortunately, a large portion of health care in America falls on the right-hand, downward sloping portion of the curve, such as the use of aggressive medical interventions on dying patients. To order the full text of this article, please go to ordering .