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The Current Healthcare Environment: Who is the Customer?
Author(s) -
Heater Barbara S.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
nursing forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.618
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1744-6198
pISSN - 0029-6473
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6198.1996.tb00495.x
Subject(s) - reimbursement , business , health care , welfare , marketing , nursing , medicine , economics , market economy , economic growth
The customer of health care is identified in different third‐party financial reimbursement periods beginning with the period before Medicare. The author speculates that the customer in a managed care system might be the corporate offices where employee healthcare decisions are made. In a discussion of managed care, nurses are cautioned about the threats to patient welfare when institutional goals become the customer and take precedence over clinical outcomes of patients.