Suchergebnisse

"The unique composition and configuration of doctors and hospitals in the U.S. is leading to a crisis in primary care provision. There are significantly more specialists than generalists and many community hospitals and outpatient facilities are concentrated in affluent areas with high rates of comprehensive insurance coverage. These particular features present difficult challenges to policymakers seeking to increase access to care. Carl F. Ameringer shows why the road to universal healthcare is not built on universal finance alone. Policymakers in other countries successfully align finance with delivery to achieve better access, lower costs, and improved population health. This book explains how the U.S. healthcare system developed, and why efforts to expand insurance coverage in the absence of significant changes to delivery could make things worse"--

During the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission took on the powerful American Medical Association, hastening the end of the medical profession's domination of the health-care industry. The pivotal confrontation was the FTC's administrative action (the "FTC proceeding"), commenced in 1975, against the AMA. According to the FTC, ethical restrictions on physician advertising, solicitation, and contract practice bore no reasonable relationship to procompetitive concerns, the touchstone of the FTC's public-interest calculus. By eliminating these restraints, FTC commissioners and attorneys cut the ties that bound rank-and-file physicians to their national, state, and local medical societies, thereby undermining the structure of organized medicine. Stripped of its organizing principles and enforcement mechanisms, the medical establishment weakly resisted the formation of large-scale provider networks and the integration of insurance products and delivery systems, known as health maintenance organizations or HMOs.

Examines FTC administrative action against AMA and organized medicine and the medical profession, beginning in 1975; consequences for federal government policy and the health care industry; US. Ethical principles, FTC litigation strategy, allegations and defenses of primary parties, and decisions of the administrative law judge, FTC commissioners, and appellate courts.

Related Content: Mathews (PAR March/April 2017)
Related Content: Liebert and Ameringer (PAR November/December 2013)

There are currently more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States; the majority of them are of Hispanic origin. This article shows that Hispanic immigrants in the Greater Richmond, Virginia, area rely heavily on free clinics for basic health care services. Free clinics do not receive any public funding and thus face reduced government regulation. As a result, these clinics typically present fewer barriers to undocumented immigrants seeking care. Although free clinics function outside the mainstream of government funding for health care services, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 is so broad and far‐reaching in its scope and potential application that free clinics cannot escape its grasp once the new law is fully implemented. Because the ACA does not provide insurance coverage to undocumented immigrants, free clinics will remain their primary sources of care and treatment. Consequently, those responsible for implementing the ACA should consider the impact on free clinics.

The professional regime -- Precursors of change -- The triumph of market theory -- The Federal Trade Commission takes the lead -- The AMA case -- A question of jurisdiction -- Drawing the line between clinical and business practices -- The quest for antitrust relief -- The demonization of managed care