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Biomedical subjects

R K Match

Publications and source records attributed to R K Match.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

The potential of the teaching hospital for the development of prepaid group practices.

This paper deals with the development of a hospital based prepaid group practice at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center. The paper provides an historical perspective of the factors leading to the decision to develop such a Medical Group practice, the difficulties encountered in obtaining conceptual approval from the Medical Center's Board of Trustees and its medical staff, the negotiations between the Medical Center and Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Greater New York as the insurance company which agreed to market the program and to subsidize it in its developmental stage, factors relating to the contractual negotiations between the Medical Center and Blue Cross, the key elements of the negotiated contract from the standpoint of the prepaid group, and the nature of the subsidies provided to ensure a healthy fiscal beginning. The paper highlights the methods used in achieving the desired goals and the development of the Group, sets forth the resistance which other, similar hospitals might anticipate in undertaking such a venture of their own, and highlights the nature and the degree of commitment necessary to bring such a program into being.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance Plans

Unionization, strikes, threatened strikes, and hospitals--the view from hospital management.

The history of union organizing efforts in the hospital field is discussed in this article, along with the factors judged necessary for successful union organizing. The role played by labor legislation in the unionization of hospital workers is shown, and the influences of the National Labor Relations Act, the Taft-Hartley amendments, and labor legislation at the local level are described. Management has largely resisted unionization because of the social nature of hospitals. Competitive market forces do not confront the not-for-profit hospitals, which are dependent upon third-party reimbursement. While strikes are an integral and essential part of collective bargaining in industry, they are, in fact, detrimental to hospitals because of these institutions' concern with human life. Despite laws and assurances from labor leaders that strikes will not occur, strikes have been used as a method for resolving disputes, through they are basically inconsistent with the economic characteristics and objectives of the hospital. The authors conclude that arbitration awards should be made by arbitrators appointed from outside of the local region of the hospital involved, ant that, because of the catastrophic effect of strikes upon patients as well as employees, arbitration awards should be required, should be binding upon both parties, and should be federally enforced.

Attitude