Health Care

9 Pages 2280 Words

cost savings have been achieved, according
to most evidence, without significant reductions in the quality of care
(Carlisle et al. 1992; Retchin and Brown 1991, 1990; Sloss et al.
1987; Ware et al. 1986; Greenfield et al. 1995; Miller and Luft
1997). This suggests that managed care health insurance plans -HMOs in
particular- tend to reduce inefficiencies in the health care system.
In fact, a study that examined changes in hospital expenses in
California found as much as a forty-four percent slower rate of
hospital care cost growth in markets with high HMO penetration relative
to markets with low HMO penetration (Robinson 1991, 1996).
There are two main types of services that managed care health
insurance companies use to categorize and label their
treatments and procedures. These categories are known as
complementary services and substitutive services. These two
terms apply to new innovations in medical technology and the
amount of money spent to provide the technology to the
consumer. Complementary services are those whose us...