Ethical Issues in Managed Health Care

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how health care is a unique category of business in that every decision, whether it be clinical or economic, has an ethical component. It looks at how the ethical issues for "managed care" create four major categories of concern: professional, medical, business, and social. It also discusses how some of the most important areas for attention include the lack of professional code of ethics for physician executives, interference with the principles of informed consent and patient autonomy, violation of consumer rights, and social maleficence in obstruction to access and delivery.

Outline
Introduction
The Basics of Managed Health Care
Prioritizing Ethical Issues
Conclusion and Recommendations

From the Paper:

"Medical directors and administrators in managed health care organizations today face those kinds of decisions every day (Woodstock Theological Center, 1999). For doctor like Stanley to be able to make good ethical decisions, they must understand the ethical issue involved in managed health care. Many doctors initially feel that the problems lie with the managed health care organizations, as they have seen first-hand many of the "unethical" decisions that managed care organizations make. However, recently, it has become apparent that people who are assumed to have the same perspective, such as the doctors, do not always agree on what would be the right decision. Second, doctors have begun to understand the perspectives of those with whom they disagreed."

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