Confidentiality and managed care: ethical and legal concerns

As managed care companies take over the allocation of funds, the monitoring of treatment, and the measurement of outcomes, social workers encounter an ethical and legal dilemma with the demise of confidentiality in the professional-client relationship. Given that the profession has long heralded the protection of client confidentiality, it is timely that social workers re-examine traditional ethical and legal responsibilities to clients and challenge managed care personnel to protect clients' right to confidentiality. This article highlights problems concerning confidentiality that often arise for social workers working with managed care systems. It focuses also on ethical and legal standards related to confidentiality and social work responsibilities regarding informed consent.