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Quality Control, Enterprise Liability, And Distintermediation In Managed Care, Nicole Huberfeld, John V. Jacobi

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this article, the authors examine the potential of enterprise liability in light of current health-care finance realities. The article begins by addressing background issues of medical malpractice theory and the development of proposals for a form of plan-based enterprise medical liability centered on managed care organizations (MCOs). The authors then describe recent trends in the evolution of more loosely structured MCOs, including the emergence of "disintermediated," or patient-directed, plans. The authors examine the extent to which these developments weaken the rationales for plan-based enterprise liability. The article concludes nevertheless that plan-based enterprise liability best serves the goal of reducing …