Law Commons^™

Spending Medicare’S Dollars Wisely: Taking Aim At Hospitals’ Cultures Of Overtreatment, Jessica Mantel

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

With Medicare’s rising costs threatening the country’s fiscal health, policymakers have focused their attention on a primary cause of Medicare’s high price tag—the overtreatment of patients. Guided by professional norms that demand they do “everything possible” for their patients, physicians frequently order additional diagnostic tests, perform more procedures, utilize costly technologies, and provide more inpatient care. Much of this care, however, does not improve Medicare patients’ health, but only increases Medicare spending. Reducing the overtreatment of patients requires aligning physicians’ interests with the government’s goal of spending Medicare’s dollars wisely. Toward that end, recent Medicare payment reforms establish a range …

Medicine As A Public Calling, Nicholas Bagley

Michigan Law Review

The debate over how to tame private medical spending tends to pit advocates of government-provided insurance—a single-payer scheme—against those who would prefer to harness market forces to hold down costs. When it is mentioned at all, the possibility of regulating the medical industry as a public utility is brusquely dismissed as anathema to the American regulatory tradition. This dismissiveness, however, rests on a failure to appreciate just how deeply the public utility model shaped health law in the twentieth century— and how it continues to shape health law today. Closer economic regulation of the medical industry may or may not …

Belgian Health Care: A System Worth Studying, Douglas John Maragas

Akron Law Review

This article will focus on basic information pertinent to the Belgian system. A more extensive explanation of the Belgian system, and a proposed American health care plan adapted from the Belgian system, can be found in my report: "A Comprehensive Health Care System Incorporating Public and Private Enterprise: With the Belgian system as a Base, America can Develop a Cost Efficient Comprehensive Health Care System."

Healthcare Reform Symposium September 18, 1992

Akron Law Review

I would like to talk a little bit about what the right questions are when we go about looking at the reform of health care.

Should everyone be guaranteed a health care plan? If you're going to have a universal health care plan, how do you provide universal coverage, how will you expand coverage? How can we pay for it? Who do you think should administer the health care program?

Staffing National Health Care Reform: A Role For Advanced Practice Nurses, Linda H. Aiken, William M. Sage

Akron Law Review

Expanding access and coverage while containing costs can only be accomplished by getting more health care value for our money. Two facts about our current system make this seem possible. First, the currently uninsured are not costless. Providing stop-gap health care to those who lack health insurance is extremely expensive -- people without formal coverage cannot afford preventive services, delay treatment of illness and face substantial barriers to reaching appropriate providers. When they receive care, it is often degrading, usually complicated and costly, and more than occasionally too late. The cost of this "uncompensated" care is borne by all of …

Managed Competition Theory As A Basis For Health Care Reform, Catherine T. Dunlay, Peter A. Pavarini

Akron Law Review

[T]his article will seek to explain the fundamental principles of managed competition and the basic features of reform based on managed competition. It will also examine some of the criticisms of managed competition and the practical and legal impediments that will be faced in seeking to reform the health care industry based upon managed competition theory.