Implement physician/family conferences where the physician, patient, and family discuss the type of care they envision for the final stage of the patient's life;

Source Citation (MLA 7th edition) Managed Health Care Services :encyclopedia of emerging industries 5th ed Detroit: Gala virtual reference library web. 16 May 2016.     ANALYSIS #2 The article by Luft Harold attempts to analyze the different issues in managed care and provides possible solutions to the problems. In the article, managed care is defined as “a collection of health plans” (Harold, 2003) and the article relates these health care plans to both chronic and acute illnesses. Due to the vast amount of managed care plans though, quality of managed care is difficult to determine. Later in the article, Harold discusses a few of the key points that determine quality of managed care. A few being the payment arrangements for physicians, provider networks offered by the plan, and “managerial approaches used by the plans to select clinicians. . . and encourage adherence to practice guidelines.” (Harold, 2003) With all the various factors that affect quality of managed care, Harold states that more projects are necessary to obtain and analyze information on managed care, and will thus provide a better overview of managed care. Overall, a project similar to the Human Genome Project except relating to managed care, will not only be of interest to the “study of managed care, but [also] to issues of quality measurement, patient and consumer surveys, and complex study designs.” (Harold, 2003) Managed care has various impacts on different health care settings, but the most apparent are in the costs of treatment and how physicians treat their patients. Managed care plans have a direct effect on the cost of treatment, lowering the cost of treatments and helping America save money on healthcare. Physicians though can be negatively affected, forcing them to treat more patients rather than maintain quality care for their patients. Managed care can also restrict physicians, forcing them to obtain approval before proceeding with treatment. Patients too are affected by managed care, since they are restricted to what types of medical providers they can go to and can be required to obtain preauthorization when going to an emergency room. Managed care can also force patients with mental illnesses to have a more difficult time obtaining treatment than a patient with a physical illness. Overall, managed care is cost effective, but both physicians and patients are being negatively affected, restricting both physicians and patients in the options available to them. Harold S, L., & Dudley, R. A. (2003). Measuring Quality in Modern Managed Care. Health Services Research, 38(6 Pt 1), 1373–1384. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2003.00183.x]]>