Law Commons^™

Government As God: An Update On Federal Intervention In The Treatment Of Critically Ill Newborns, Dionne L. Koller

All Faculty Scholarship

Whether a severely impaired or critically ill infant should receive lifesaving, and sometimes extraordinary, medical treatment, or be allowed to die, is hotly debated. The issue initially garnered public attention in 1982, when an infant who was born with Down's Syndrome, “Baby Doe,” was allowed to die from a correctable birth defect. Following this, the federal government took a lead role in determining the fate of critically ill newborns. In the meantime, doctors, philosophers, and others have debated whether federal interference in this area is appropriate.

This essay will bring the reader up to date on the “Baby Doe” issue …

Managed Care- The First Chapter Comes To A Close, Sallyanne Payton

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Introduction to the symposium, Managed Care: What's the Prognosis: Managing Care in the Next Century.

Playing Doctor: Corporate Medical Practice And Medical Malpractice, E. Haavi Morreim

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Although health plans once existed mainly to ensure that patients could pay for care, in recent years managed care organizations (MCOs) have attempted to limit expenditures by exercising significant influence over the kinds and levels of care provided. Some commentators argue that such influence constitutes the practice of medicine, and should subject MCOs to the same medical malpractice torts traditionally brought against physicians. Others hold that MCOs engage only in contract interpretation, and do not literally practice medicine.

This Article begins by arguing that traditional common law doctrines governing corporate practice of medicine do not precisely apply to the current …

Regulating Doctors, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

Alawyer today can hardly speak to a doctor--or even be treated by one-without being assailed by lawyer jokes. These jokes go well beyond good-humored badinage and pass the line into venom and gall. They reflect, I think, the sense many doctors today have that they are embattled and endangered, cruelly subject to pervasive and perverse controls. This is puzzling, almost to the point of mystery. Doctors have long been the American profession with the greatest social prestige, the greatest wealth, and the greatest control over its work. Indeed, what other profession has been as all-conquering? One may need to go …

Ethical Issues In Managed Care: Can Thetraditional Physician-Patient Relationship Be Preserved In The Era Of Managed Care Or Should It Be Replaced By A Group Ethic?, Eugene C. Grochowski

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Over the last decade managed care has become the dominant form of health care delivery, because it has reduced the cost of health care; however, it has also created serious conflicts of interest for physicians and has threatened the integrity of the traditional physician-patient relationship. In this Article, Dr. Grochowski argues that the efficiencies created by managed care are one time savings and will not in the long run reduce the rate of rise of health care expenditures without a concomitant plan to ration health care. He explores the traditional physician-patient relationship and concludes:

• a) that while rationing of health …