Ethics of HMOs

Paper Summary:

This paper addresses the ethics of managed care. This topic has come under controversy since its inception in the 1960s in the form of Medicare and Medicaid. This paper shall clearly examine the history of managed care and its evolution from a federally- funded and managed institution to a billion- dollar industry within the private sector. A case study of the current nursing shortage shall be provided in order to present many of the problems that are manifest in managed care. This paper concludes with an emphasis on the potential future of managed care.

From the Paper:

"Currently, managed care is most commonly referred to as the Health Maintenance Organization, or the HMO, as this industry has single- handedly dominated the American health care arena. Yet the HMO is not the only form of managed care, but has simply been recognized foremost in the media as encouraging business practices that press the "bottom line" of the economic standing rather than the overall welfare of the patient. This is a controversial practice, especially in respect to how the HMOs maintain the power of health and human welfare. The influence of economic properties in health care has given rise to the question, "Is managed care an ethical institution for the health care industry?" The lack of ethical qualities is highly evident in the case studies of the growth and manipulation of the Medicaid and Medicare systems, where administrative preferences were placed before those of the health care profession."

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