Pros and Cons of Managed Care Plans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pros and Cons of Managed Care Plans - Essay Example This benefits the beneficiaries of the plans (Kongstvdt, 2007). Managed care plans are beneficial in preventive measures. The people who have benefited from managed care plans are more likely to receive vaccinations and thus less likely to fall ill. This reduces the amount of resources spent in medical attention. However, managed care plans have areas that need improvement. First, managed care plans provide for cream skimming that ensures that only the healthiest people subscribe to the programs. This locks out people who are able and willing to pay the premiums and divides the society into groups based on their health status.   Managed care plans can limit the patient’s use of services by controlling the physicians’ motivation (Health Strategy, 2010). These plans do so by controlling the amount of incentives they offer to the physicians. Physicians’ incentives should be standard, and beneficiaries should receive quality medical services at all times (Kongstvdt , 2007). Competition among managed care plans may lead to a decrease in the quality of health care services provided to beneficiaries.   All the managed care plans will seek to enroll the healthiest people and, therefore, the programs that fail to recruit such people may be driven out of the market. Managed care plans also give physicians an opportunity to alter the way their treatment to people who are not subscribed to the plans so that they can use high concentration services. This will increase revenue to the managed care plans at the expense of patients.