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Book Description
One of the country's leading health economists presents a provocative analysis of the transformation of American medicine from a system of professional dominance to an industry under corporate control. James Robinson examines the economic and political forces that have eroded the traditional medical system of solo practice and fee-for-service insurance, hindered governmental regulation, and invited the market competition and organizational innovations that now are under way. The trend toward health care corporatization is irreversible, he says, and it parallels analogous trends toward privatization in the world economy.
The physician is the key figure in health care, and how physicians are organized is central to the health care system, says Robinson. He focuses on four forms of physician organization to illustrate how external pressures have led to health care innovations: multispecialty medical groups, Independent Practice Associations (IPAs), physician practice management firms, and physician-hospital organizations. These physician organizations have evolved in the past two decades by adopting from the larger corporate sector similar forms of ownership, governance, finance, compensation, and marketing.
In applying economic principles to the maelstrom of health care, Robinson highlights the similarities between competition and consolidation in medicine and in other sectors of the economy. He points to hidden costs in fee-for-service medicine--overtreatment, rampant inflation, uncritical professional dominance regarding treatment decisions--factors often overlooked when newer organizational models are criticized.
Not everyone will share Robinson's appreciation for market competition and corporate organization in American health care, but he challenges those who would return to the inefficient and inequitable era of medicine from which we've just emerged. Forcefully written and thoroughly documented, The Corporate Practice of Medicine presents a thoughtful--and optimistic--view of a future health care system, one in which physician entrepreneurship is a dynamic component.

About the Author
James C. Robinson is Professor of Health Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. He is the author of Toil and Toxics (California, 1991) and of many articles in journals, including Health Affairs and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

First Sentence:
America had declared anathema on the corporate practice of medicine. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
network medical group, multispecialty medical groups, preferred provider insurance, primary care capitation, regulated professionalism, physician practice management firms, independent medical groups, other physician organizations, single health plan, capitation contracting, emerging health care system, capitated medical groups, indemnity carriers, multispecialty clinics, capitated patients, clinical coordination, global capitation, many medical groups, clinical infrastructure, capitation budget, physician membership, purchasing alliances, medical arms race, discussions with physician, other medical groups Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Blue Cross, New York, Los Angeles, Hill Physicians, Bristol Park, New Jersey, Friendly Hills, Nalle Clinic, Orange County, San Francisco, Wall Street, United States, President Clinton, California Pacific, Jackson Hole Group, Mullikin Medical Centers, Pacific Physician Services, Summit Medical Group, North Carolina, Jude Heritage Health Foundation, New Deal, Catholic Healthcare West, Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, Orange Coast, Partners Medical Group New!
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index |