The Morality of Managed Care
"The preservation of health is a duty" according to Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher (Andrews, 1993). Managed care conglomerates provide health coverage for increasing numbers of Americans. Many critics question whether these businesses provide care dutifully. At the very least, the present managed care system requires health care providers and recipients to reexamine established principles underling physician-patient interaction. Although health maintenance organizations are commonly misunderstood, Americans hope these institutions will dampen runaway health care expenditures. Since HMO's are increasing in number, health care recipients need to examine how established, ethical principles in America are changing. These subtle alterations create conflicts between physicians, HMO's, and patients. Ultimately, patients are regarded as consumers, and understandably, quality care may be more difficult to obtain.
Definition Of Managed Care
Although numerous health care plans presently exist, managed care plans have dominated the marketplace since the early 1980's. Preferred provider organizations (PPO's) and health maintenance organizations (HMO's) are the most common, and they continue to grow in number. Since managed care has become commonplace, the differences between PPO's, HMO's and fee-for-service reimbursement arrangements must be critically evaluated. Without understanding their general organizational and payment structures, moral judgments pertaining to varying plans cannot be ascertained easily. PPO's contract with a limited number of physicians and hospitals who agree to care for patients on a discounted fee for service basis. On the other hand, HMO's amass insurers and providers...
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“ Effects of Oil Spills on Marine and Coastal Wildlife” Holly K. Ober. WEB. 19 May 2014
When one examines managed health care and the hospitals that provide the care, a degree of variation is found in the treatment and care of their patients. This variation can be between hospitals or even between physicians within a health care network. For managed care companies the variation may be beneficial. This may provide them with opportunities to save money when it comes to paying for their policy holder’s care, however this large variation may also be detrimental to the insurance company. This would fall into the category of management of utilization, if hospitals and managed care organizations can control treatment utilization, they can control premium costs for both themselves and their customers (Rodwin 1996). If health care organizations can implement prevention as a way to warrant good health with their consumers, insurance companies can also illuminate unnecessary health care. These are just a few examples of how the health care industry can help benefit their patients, but that does not mean every issue involving physician over utilization or quality of care is erased because there is a management mechanism set in place.
“The highest rated science program on TV called NOVA made a documentary surrounding genomic testing called, Cracking Your Genetic Code (NOVA, 2008).” This documentary demonstrated and described different techniques of what is genetic testing, how genetic testing is performed, and all the individuals whom benefit from these special DNA techniques. What is DNA? “DNA is material that governs inheritance of eye color, hair color and many other human and animal traits (Riley, 2005).” DNA is developed from the pairing of genes from a female and male gametes (Health & Prenancy, 2012). These gametes fuse together during mitosis and meiosis, getting 23 chromosomes from each parent, in order, to develop an embryo. In this embryo is DNA. DNA is made of 4 different amino acids, in which, are the building blocks for DNA and they are A, T, G, & C. These building blocks have base pairing in a series of sequences and this sequence is what makes up genes. Genes are codes that can read in this sequence to determine what kind of traits offspring is going to have. Through genes DNA testing can be perform to find mistakes. In this documentary, many different genetic testing were performed and some may agree that this can be very controversy because some people will rather not know certain things unless there are signs or symptoms. However, others find this DNA testing as an advantage and knowing this information can prepare them for the “what if” factor. In my research, I will be discussing what genetic testing is, what it provides, what the benefits are, the risks, and what companies provide genomic testing.
Since both Federal and State government have their own powers, they also share powers to help control the United States. This balances power so the government won't fail like it did with the Articles of Confederation. For example, the Federal government keeps charge of Postal services, while the state keeps charge of motor vehicles, hospitality and that other stuff.
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In Somasundaran’s book, Oil Spill Remediation Colloid Chemistry-Based Principles and Solutions, he states, “[Lessons learned] have taught us that conventional mitigation techniques such as booming, skimming, and mechanical recovery cannot be fully relied upon to prevent oil from reaching shorelines and damaging sensitive ecosystems during a large-scale spill.” The most common oil spill cleanup methods involve trying to contain the spill with floating booms that prevent the spill from getting out of control. These are only possible if the spill is accessible within a few hours of happening, otherwise the area of the spill gets too large to contain with even the largest floating stoppers ("Oil Spill Cleanup Methods: How Do You Clean Up An Oil Spill? - Conservation Institute"). When the oil spill cannot be contained, the only options available require speeding up the natural breakdown of oil components. The first method for doing this is adding dispersal agents. These are chemicals that allow the oil to chemically bond with water. This prevents the slick from traveling over the water and increases the surface area of each oil molecule ("Oil Spill Cleanup Methods: How Do You Clean Up An Oil Spill? - Conservation Institute"). The cheapest way to clean oil spills is with biological agents that break down the oil into fatty acids and carbon
The United States is comprised of Federal and State governments. The Federal Government is located in the District of Columbia where it is run by three branches, the executive branch, legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The State Governments are structured in a way that emulates the Federal government, except there is one for each state and located at the state capital. The Federal Government controls all 50 states and their governments under the Constitution. State Governments, on the other hand, are responsible for governing their selective state under their individual constitutions, for the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution enables the State Government to have powers that are not clearly stated in the Constitution. (Tenth Amendment ) Though these two governments parallel one another, there are differences in the internal mechanisms of how their three branches execute, and also in the way laws are initiated when the Federal Government establishes a federal law onto the states.
Many similarities can occur between the state and federal governments. State governments function like miniature federal governments. They have legislative, judicial, and executive branches,(although the three branch structure is not required) and they both go through many of the same law-making procedures. Each state tries to function as its own government, while following the Federal guidelines.
National Research Council. 1989. Using oil pollution dispersants on the sea. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Theoretically, in a Federal system the sovereignty is shared between the national government and the local government but the ultimate sovereignty lies on the people. The federal government does not have the power to be involved in the states laws as they are only able to deal with national security, taxation and foreign affairs. The States however, deal with public welfare, education and justice. For instance, in different States there are different laws in executing criminals implemented as such in California death sentence is applied. However, it differs in practice whereby in the recent events the federal government is heavily involved in the public welfare especially when it dealt with major crises.
In today’s world, people are learning a great deal in the rapidly growing and developing fields of science and technology. Almost each day, an individual can see or hear about new discoveries and advances in these fields of study. One science that is rapidly progressing is genetic testing; a valuable science that promotes prevention efforts for genetically susceptible people and provides new strategies for disease management. Unnaturally, and morally wrong, genetic testing is a controversial science that manipulates human ethics. Although genetic testing has enormous advantages, the uncertainties of genetic testing will depreciate our quality of life, and thereby result in psychological burden, discrimination, and abortion.
First, let's consider the situations in which genetic testing would be beneficial to patients. Genetic testing for diseases that are preventable or treatable could allow individuals to alter their lifestyles so as to treat the disease or reduce their risk of developing the disease. For instance, the E2 version of the APOE gene, which is found on chromosome 19, has been linked to heart disease (Ridley, 1999). Individuals who have two copies of the E2 gene are particularly sensitive to high-fat and high-cholesterol diets. Therefore, a genetic test to determine whether a person has the high-risk version of the APOE gene could inform a person of future health risks, thereby allowing the person to change his diet to help prev...
Both forms of government share the same realm of authority, and with national law being supreme law of the land; national government has leverage over the states. The national government exercises its authority through the use of money in the form of grants-in-aid to increase their influences on states. For example, the national government gives money to state’s highway if their minimum drinking age at 21 years old (Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry). The federal courts will also impose unfunded mandates on to states, which are orders from the national government to end school segregation, increase test scores in high school, or to start a program to expand mental health care, but the state receives no money to do said
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