Physicians and the Growth of Managed Care

In this report, I shall discuss the growth of physicians' involvement managed-care plans, most of which are controlled by nonphysicians. This suggests a new accommodation by individual doctors to this form of care financing and delivery, although organized medicine has been to restrict its expansion, as I discussed in a recent article. I also report on my recent discussions with several panels of physicians, I undertook in an effort to determine why many doctors are contracting health insurance plans. Ironically, because organized medicine has health care reform measures that would have expanded the role of in financing medical care, it has created favorable conditions for future system that many doctors feel uneasy about -- a market-based system by large private insurance companies.