Professional ethics and managed care in dermatology

The way health care is financed in the United States is changing quickly. Fee-for-service arrangements in which health care providers exercised great autonomy over health care services financed by third-party payers is quickly giving way to a variety of managed care approaches. The driving force behind this change is the desire to control the growth of health care cost. In the simplest term, costs are controlled in a managed care system by controlling the provision of services. Broadly speaking, 1 of 2 methods is used to control costs. Either physician behavior or subscriber behavior is modified or limited.