Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:1142-1148
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Managed health care and the Massachusetts experience
LI Sederer and RL St. Clair
McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass. 02178.
Managed health care, through prepaid health delivery systems and
utilization review organizations, is perhaps the greatest trend in modern
health care. The authors examine the remarkable growth of managed care and
outline its clinical, economic, ethical, and practical implications. They
then review examples of how organized psychiatry has been involved in
managed care and describe the efforts to date of the Massachusetts
Psychiatric Society in this area. Managed care is here to stay. The future
climate of psychiatric practice and the care available to psychiatric
patients are dependent on informed and organized activities by
psychiatrists and their local and national representatives.
