Managed care has made a phenomenal impact on the Health Care industry. One area in which it has deeply effective medicine is in the role managers play in a variety of health service organizations. Directors and supervisors have to alter their strategic plans and change the course they had previously planned, and physicians have had to change the way they practice medicine. The different types of managers and the individualized and constantly evolving roles they play in Health Service Organizations must meet the needs of these organizations, as well as to remain in compliance with the regulatory agencies on an ongoing basis.

One of the main focuses behind establishing Managed Care Organizations was to provide quality health care to beneficiaries of the plan, while controlling the costs of services. Many health care providers have found that the patients are given little say in the delivery of their care, as managed care organizations are often too concerned with cost-containment than in the quality of care. Physicians often differ in their methods of treating patients, much the same as any two artists’ paintings of the same subject would be diff

Eliminating waste from the health care system is imperative. It is important that providers understand that "expensive" is not synonymous with "medically unnecessary." In this struggle to contain cost, four areas of waste have been identified: ineffective or harmful, of uncertain effectiveness, ethically troubling, and allocationally ineffective.(Marmor, 89) No one disagrees that harmful care should be done away with, and almost everyone would like to see more cost effective care. It is when the argument reaches the categories of "uncertain effectiveness" and "ethically troubling" and deciding who is able to make such a determination that debates begin. Many physicians resent an intrusion upon their clinical judgment, patients would be unhappy and unlikely to accept the denial of a procedure they have been told by their doctor will be beneficial to their care, and all side in the equation cannot seem to agree on what is morally correct. "While many physicians will refrain from performing procedures known to be ineffective, most will not be willing to unilaterally cut [sic] other 'wasteful' activities".(Marmor, 106).

Many privately owned practices formed groups to assist in their negations with Managed Care Organization’s, allowing better financial terms and practice standards in their contracts. Some physicians began to see that so much of their time was spent negotiating contracts and ensuring that each of the rules established by the ever-growing number of Managed Care Organizations were being followed. Quite often, more office staff had to be employed to maintain patient records and to ensure the appropriate referral processes were followed. Those processes change each year as the HMO’s find more ways to contain costs and increase the quality of service. In order to remain compliant with the changes, many physicians and office managers had to pick up more duties to maintain the growing administrative responsibilities of practices. Most doctors found that they could no longer do it all. They found it too difficult to effectively juggle all of the administrative and the medical sides of their business.

Another managerial role is that of clinical/nursing manager. This manager is the educator and supervisor of the nursing and clinical staff. These individuals must be knowledgeable in managed care, as many of the responsibilities in complying with the regulations and policies fall on the nursing staff. There is much information that clinical manager must learn and understand and to convey to clinical staff. Questions such as which vaccines are covered during what age group for which insurer is one of the many different clinically specific issues that require medical staff to receive ongoing training in these areas. Not only do the office and nursing staff members require continuous education on the latest changes in Managed Care, but the healthcare providers need to learn as well. The ever-changing drug formularies are posted at many nursing stations, preventing unnecessary phone calls from the pharmacies stating that a certain company does not cover one drug over the other. There are so many issues, from small to large that are specific to each managed care organization, as well as each insurer, that without managerial assistance, primary care practices would be crippled.

Managed care has had a large impact on many issues in health care. One of the many changes has been the effect it has had on the provider system.6 Many practices have consolidated into larger group practices. They hire practice managers and/or administrators that were well educated in healthcare management to handle the day-to-day operations. The role of these managers encompassed much more than training staf

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