Well-Known Managed Healthcare Plans - Essay Example

 In today’s society, competition is all-pervasive, be it the production of cars or providing healthcare services. Health care becomes an issue because while taking care of other responsibilities, we tend to ignore what we are supposed to do to lead a healthy life.

It is under such circumstances that the role of a caregiver becomes all the more important. While on the one hand, the caregiver has to take care of the organizational goals and the profitability aspects, on the other hand, the caregiver is supposed to provide the best care and guidance to the customer. Once, such arrangements take cues from corporate management, the healthcare to becomes ‘managed healthcare’. From the point of view of a consumer, the pros of such managed healthcare are;

1. It helps in a long-term relationship between the consumer and the caregiver. In fact in these competitive times, quite often companies offer good bargains to consumers.
2. The consumer gets preferential treatment from the caregiver

• The consumer gets high-quality healthcare at affordable prices

1. The caregiver prepares a plan for routine check-ups for the consumer. So even in case the consumer forgets about his/her health check-ups, the company reminds him/her about it.
2. At times, in situations like the consumer is on tour to a place outside the native place, then the tie-up between caregiver companies helps the consumer in getting good care from some affiliated company as well

But there are some side-effects of managed healthcare as well;

1. The consumer gets tied up with a particular company for a longer time and even if there are better alternatives, he/she cannot go for a change, because of the agreement between the consumer and the healthcare company
2. The consumer is bound to pay a fixed sum of money to the healthcare company, irrespective of the requirements. Well, not all consumers fall sick regularly.

From the caregiver’s perspective too managed healthcare plans are of great help because;

1. Such an arrangement provides a committed consumer segment for the company. The healthcare company can plan for the long term, with a committed consumer base
2. Such arrangements help the company in taking on the competition.

But entering into a managed healthcare plan with the consumer also involves some risk for the company. For example, in these inflationary times, when costs are rising, the company finds itself unable to charge higher prices, because of the agreement done with the consumer.

Some of the well-known managed healthcare plans are, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs); Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), and Point-of-Service (POS) plans. These plans have evolved over the years and have taken care of some of the deficiencies that are included in the traditional insurance covers. While traditional insurance covers are used to take care of limited aspects of healthcare, managed healthcare plans are comprehensive and try to include some modern-day health hazards like long sitting in front of the computer screen and its ergonomic impacts on our body parts.