QUO VADIS?
Student
There are growing concerns, among physicians and others in the US, about the impact of [present] policies on medical care costs, on the commercialisation of medicine, and on physician autonomy. As a result of the new market-oriented policies, physicians in the US are now the most litigated-against, second-guessed, and paperwork-laden physicians in western industrialised democracies. Physicians' day-to-day clinical decisionmaking—commonly referred to as clinical freedom—is increasingly subject to review and appoval by "case managers" working for employers, insurance carriers, and government financed and regulated professional review organisations. Malpractice suits and administrative costs are multiplying. The growing adversarial relationship with private and public payers and loss of physican autonomy are closely related to the growing view that medical care should be treated like any other private business.
