Word: patients
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...style, fee-for-service settings. Moreover, satisfaction surveys reveal that the 100 million Americans enrolled in HMOs, preferred-provider organizations and other managed-care plans are pleased with the treatment they receive. Through the years, these plans have developed integrated, coordinated care systems that ensure continuity and seamlessness for patients. These systems allow physicians to study the health of their patient population over time so that they can work together to improve the quality of care they provide. PATRICK G. HAYS President and CEO BlueCross BlueShield Association Chicago...
...DOCTOR CAN ALWAYS SELL TO A DESPERate patient a procedure that offers scant hope and costs a great deal. In the future, though, we must sell not merely hope, but results. Fortunately, not all HMOs are using the patient's money to support administrators as you described. ROLF NESSE, M.D. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho...
HMOS GENERALLY COMPARE VERY FAVORably in studies of patient outcomes to other patient populations. The true medical horror stories you should be covering are the ones that result under traditional fee-for-service medicine when no one is managing the care. JO FRKOVICH Dana Point, California...
HMOS HAVE BEEN BOTH GOOD AND BAD for health care in the U.S. We have learned about waste and limited resources, and that more is not always better. But HMOs erode the doctor-patient relationship. Society wants physicians to control costs. It also wants them to be advocates for health. Most doctors want to be on the side of the patient. However, third-party payers (not just HMOs) can be intimidating. Money is powerful. But most doctors do their best for the patient, or at least what seems to be the best. DAVID S. SMITH, M.D. Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
...third stage of infection begins when the helper T-cell count drops from an average of 1,000 cells per milliliter of blood to fewer than 500. Doctors tend to treat that number as an imaginary tripwire. When a patient hits it, they issue a prescription for AZT, the original anti-HIV drug and still the most widely prescribed. Unfortunately, AZT by itself is only marginally effective. The virus is notoriously changeable. Within 18 months, it usually manages to mutate into a form that is no longer susceptible to AZT or any of its chemical cousins...