ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at the need for and potential of non-physician primary care assistance. It examines the implementation of Health maintenance organizations with particular emphasis on the impact it has had on physician autonomy. The book explores the confusion generated by a legislative mandate that demanded the conflicting goals of achieving containment, quality improvement, and greater accessibility at the same time. It provides the veterans Administration and changes in physician ideologies regarding interaction and communication with dying patients as a means to explain, and as an indicator of, general changes in patterns of physician behavior. The book also looks at who's practicing what they preach when it comes to healthy life-styles and considers several aspects of the movement for increased consumer involvement in health care that appear to be potentially challenging to arrangements.
