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Emergicenters and the Need for a Competitive Regulatory Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2021

Joel L. Michaels  and
Mary Jean Crouter
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Extract

Third party payment for health services in the United States has created an environment which offers little incentive to health care providers to be efficient. In response, health care policymakers have suggested that increased competition in the health care sector would encourage good managerial practices and improved cost efficiency. In recent years, health care providers that have the ability to provide services in a more cost-efficient manner have emerged; some, including health maintenance organizations and ambulatory surgical centers, have been encouraged by regulatory policy. In addition, a new alternative for the provision of emergency medical services has developed and has generated substantial controversy among physicians, hospitals, government officials, and the public. The entities that comprise this alternative are often collectively referred to as freestanding emergency care centers or “emergicenters.”

Much of the controversy surrounding emergicenters is caused by the lack of a definition which can be applied to the various emergicenter structures and operations.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , June 1982 , pp. 108 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1982

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