M D Maniccia | PubMed Health

PubMedDate not supplied

The arranged marriage of allopathic and alternative medicine.

The degree to which Americans are seeking and paying for alternative health care has caused some hospitals and medical groups to consider incorporating these services within the umbrella of their traditional care. The challenge is to find a standard of care that is consistent with allopathic traditions, but not so restrictive as to undercut the financial and patient satisfaction motives that prompted the interest in alternative care. By focusing on subjective complaints and chronic conditions, it may be possible to walk a path that leaves traditional medical standards intact while gaining the opportunity to attract the dollars and track the effectiveness of alternative care.

Chronic Disease↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Fixing responsibility for risk management.

The responsibility for carrying financial risk for medical coverage has migrated from individuals to insurers to employers to providers, without finding a satisfactory home. Each shift further complicates the health care infrastructure, as other responsibilities in the management of benefits and provision of care gravitate to the stakeholder who accepts risk. The social imperative to broaden coverage is forcing a change in the mechanisms of risk management--from avoiding high-risk patients, to managing those patients to better outcomes. In this paper we seek to identify objectively the most appropriate party to carry the financial risk of medical coverage, consider what characteristics are necessary to make that a practical and enduring solution, and examine the secondary effects of the structure required to support that solution.

Budgets↗