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Managed Care and the Goals of Medicine
Author(s) -
Callahan Daniel
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1998.tb01060.x
Subject(s) - medicine , managed care , health care , nursing , government (linguistics) , promotion (chess) , disease , alternative medicine , family medicine , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , politics , political science , law , economics , economic growth
The goals of medicine encompass the relief of pain and suffering, the promotion of health and the prevention of disease, the forestalling of death and the promoting of a peaceful death, and the cure of disease when possible and the care of those who can not be cured. Managed care, as a system of integrated healthcare delivery designed to control costs, is not, in principle, incompatible with the goals of medicine, but in practice it may well be, depending on whether profit is sought, whether the integrity of physicians' medical judgment is protected, and whether government regulations control managed care practices to prevent abuse and to enhance the quality of care.