Issue: Summer 1995
Pages: pp. 277-295
Authors: Dana P. Goldman
Title: Managed Care as a Public Cost-Containment Mechanism
Abstract: This article identifies the impact of managed-care reforms on the utilization of medical services within the military health-services system. The data come from a recent demonstration project that substituted an HMO and PPO for traditional FFS arrangements. Results from a semiparametric model indicate that the generosity of benefits in the HMO increased demand for ambulatory services. Unlike private-sector experience with managed care, aggressive utilization review did not significantly curtail inpatient stays. These results vitiate the presumed effectiveness of reform strategies that rely on large, geographically diffused managed-care networks to contain public-sector health costs.
Analysis of Health Care Markets (I110)
Economics of Health Including Medical Subsidy Programs (9130)