Can the patient be the focus of managed care?

If the question were simply put: "What is it that succeeds or fails to meet patients' needs in managed care?" Dr. John M Ludden would have a short answer. "It depends. Success depends on whether you are talking about individuals or about populations of patients. And it depends on whether you are talking about meeting patients' needs or their desires. It depends on whether you're talking about well patients or sick patients, young patients or older patients, new patients or established patients, rich patients or poor patients. And it depends on your ability to balance each of these qualities." This article explores how to translate high-quality care for a population to high-quality care for individuals.