Authors:

Abstract

Defining managed care is a surprisingly difficult task. Everyone knows that it has dramatically altered the health care landscape. When asked, most patients and doctors can easily give you their own managed care anecdote-a story usually involving someone's care being denied or profits being placed above patients. Health policy researchers talk about the integration of finance and provision, economists mention the introduction of market mechanisms, and politicians talk about "drive-by deliveries" and the tough new laws needed to protect patients from corporate interests. It seems that everyone knows what managed care is. And yet it remains one of those phenomena that everyone can recognize but no one can define. Many groups have proposed various definitions, but as of yet, no one of these is universally accepted.