The economic evolution of American health care : from Marcus Welby to managed care /

Dranove, an academic and author, examines with an economic perspective the historical development of managed care. The goals for his book are to detail the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional physician-patient relationship and refocus the public debate about managed care. He began the book with an optimistic view of managed care and, while he continues to be optimistic, now understands that managed care may never fulfill its promise. Hurdles to success include the need for those markets to remain competitive necessitating strong antitrust laws; the need for better health-care data, which may require government intervention both to coordinate the collection of data and to establish a confidential patient identifier; the need for managed-care providers to accept quality standards; and the need for patients to shop around for the best managed-care plans and the best providers. Although everyone will not agree with the author's theories and conclusions, he offers important insight into a complicated and critically important sector of our society. --Mary Whaley

Dranove (health services management, Northwestern Univ.; How Hospitals Survived: Competition and the American Hospital) provides an economist's look at the role of managedcare organizations (MCOs) in American health. He illustrates the many reasons why "shopping" for medical care is so difficult and discusses the role of trust and competition in the evolution of managed care. Unlike Regina Herzlinger's Market-Driven Health Care (LJ 1/97), which provides many creative ways for the market to influence healthcare, Dranove's book concentrates on managed care organizations. He raises interesting points on the benefits of managed care but does not hesitate to point out where MCOs can go wrong. While the book emphasizes the business aspects of healthcare, an economics degree is not necessary to understand the principles that are illustrated. Although the author's style is very readable, a a key to the numerous abbreviations would have been useful. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.DTina Neville, Univ. of South Florida Lib., St. Petersburg (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.