Managed Care Drives Doctors to Speed during Clinic Appointments

Managed Care Drives Doctors to Speed during Clinic Appointments

Does managed care drive doctors to speed during their clinical appointments with patients? Many debates have emerged about how managed care affects the length of time doctors spend with their patients. Some patients prefer doctors who will take a short time with them during the consultation to return to their other duties (Young et al., 2018). However, some patients seem dissatisfied with doctors who attend to them hurriedly. How managed care drives doctors to speed during clinical appointments anchors on the benefits and disadvantages associated with the length of patients’ consultation time to doctors and patients (Bell et al., 2018). Generally, managed care influences doctors’ revenue generation objectives, the efficiency of services, and reduced missed working hours. However, managed care may result in patients’ dissatisfaction and increased risk of manipulation due to shortened time doctors spend with their patients.

Reasons for Managed Care on Doctors’ Speed During Appointments

The U.S. ranks among the most advanced economies in the world regarding its purchasing power parity and gross domestic product (GDP). Many state-of-arts medical technologies, healthcare training, and research centers are available in the U.S (Mullner, 2016). Although there are visible advancements in healthcare, U.S citizens have previously experienced challenges in access to quality healthcare services. The government has strived to expand its expenditure on healthcare to caution citizens on the high costs of medical services to improve their quality of life (Gopal, 2022). Managed care has changed the healthcare spectrum, among other measures by the federal government. The need to lower healthcare costs and ease access to quality care orchestrated the emergence of managed care (Noseworthy, 2019). Managed care system has elicited debate on how and why it drives doctors to speed during clinical appointments.

Influence of Doctors’ Revenue Generation Objectives

Managed care entails an organized network of doctors, healthcare facilities, and patients. Many doctors that operate under managed care enjoy increased revenues due to the limited time they spend with their patients during appointments (Young et al., 2018). Congress passed a bill in 1973 that led to the enactment of the Health Maintenance Organization Act, which spurred the growth of managed care (Bell et al., 2018). Many doctors connected to this network of HMOs are limited on the amounts they can charge their patients since the healthcare cost is predetermined. As a result, many doctors speed up their clinical appointments to enable them to deal with the next patients and maximize revenues. The U.S government, in the past, increased its expenditure on healthcare from 5 to 17.9% in the current budget (Bell et al., 2018). Therefore, doctors under managed care programs want to maximize the opportunity of generating more revenue by shortening their appointments with patients.

Significant structural changes brought by managed care system limited the amount charged by doctors for outpatients in public hospitals. Other healthcare centers that operate liberally charge their patients according to different conditions (Gopal, 2022). However, managed care considers the number of patients served instead of the healthcare conditions patients experience. Doctors under managed care realized they could meet their revenue objectives by speeding up their clinical appointment time to enable them to serve more patients (Noseworthy, 2019). Therefore, many doctors under managed care networks spend an average of 30 minutes with patients during appointments. On average, many doctors spend 1 to 2 hours with their patients during clinical appointments (Mullner, 2016). As a result, doctors get enough time to collect the data they need for treatment and future improvement strategies. As a result, they spend more time with their patients for quality outcomes, and patients pay extra amounts for the services.

Optimizing Efficiency

Managed care restricts doctors to limited time during their clinical appointments, enabling them to optimize efficiency. Due to revenue targets by healthcare centers, doctors attend their clinical consultations in a few minutes to allow them to serve the next patient in line (Young et al., 20180. The waiting time for patients has been reduced due to doctors’ efforts to speed up the appointments and enable them to help as many patients as possible. During their clinical visits, doctors utilize their clinical experience to the maximum, including data collection, medical prescriptions, and treatment (Bell et al., 2018). The drive to speed clinical time also drives doctors to maximize their potential as much as possible. Healthcare facilities under managed care seem to serve more patients than those operating liberally (Mullner, 2016). The need for more revenue from the little percentage provided by the program drive doctors to speed during their clinical appointments.

Many clinics in the U.S., such as Mayo Clinic located in Minnesota, joined the managed care program to help citizens acquire regulated healthcare for quality outcomes. Mayo Clinic is among specialty healthcare centers where patients book appointments with their doctors (Noseworthy, 2019). In addition, many companies globally have also joined the trail of providing comprehensive coverage to their employees through commercial insurance agencies. As a result, doctors under the managed care network speed up their appointments while maximizing efficiency (Gopal, 2022). The main drive to the speed of clinical visits is regulated rates charged to patients. Therefore, maximizing efficiency through the limited time is what drives speed during clinical appointments.

Reduced Missed Working Hours

Many patients under managed care programs are employees of various organizations in the U.S. and other parts of the world where the managed care network is available. Doctors aim to reduce missed working hours for outpatients that come for clinical appointments (Gopal, 20220. Many employees fall sick during working hours and get permission to seek medical attention in their prescribed healthcare centers. The doctors are under strict instructions to speed up appointments and enable the employees to get back to work (Bell et al., 2018). When doctors limit the time spent with patients, it implies that more patients will get served, and the facility will yield more revenue from the managed care program. Manufacturing companies mainly comprise patients that use the managed care programs due to risks of minor and major injuries during work. Employers use managed care as a comprehensive cover for employees.

Labor-intensive companies value their employees due to their immense contributions to their productivity. Companies in the production sector where flow or mass production requires maximum labor capacity take managed care seriously to caution their employees against missed working hours due to illness or injuries (Gopal, 2022). The companies liaise with their designated healthcare centers to provide speedy services to their employees whenever they visit. Reducing missed working hours drives doctors to speed up clinical appointments with patients (Young et al., 2018). Generally, speed during clinical consultations benefits doctors in maximizing revenues and firms in reducing time wastage by their employees.

Objections on Managed Care and Doctors’ Speed During Clinical Appointments

Managed care drives doctors to speed during appointments with patients due to revenue objectives by many healthcare facilities. However, serving patients speedily affects patients’ satisfaction with the services and the physicians providing the services. In some cases, doctors and patients may result in malpractice due to limited engagement time and the need to generate more revenue (Young et al., 2018). The government initiated managed care system to facilitate access to quality care for all U.S. citizens. The program also aimed at bridging the socioeconomic disparities that hinder access to quality care (Mullner, 2016). Therefore, patients’ satisfaction and risks of malpractices influence doctors’ speed during clinical appointments.

Patients’ Satisfaction

Patients are the main customers of healthcare centers, and their satisfaction is among the determinants of service quality. Patients’ satisfaction depends on the perceptions of various individuals seeking clinical consultations with their doctors (Gopal, 2022). Some patients get satisfied with the speed of service they receive, and others feel dissatisfied when doctors take a long time with them than expected. Many clinical consultations involve in-depth analysis of healthcare conditions patients experience (Young et al., 2018). Some patients feel dissatisfied when doctors speed up the appointment and return home grumbling. As a result, managed care also requires doctors to take time with their patients for proper diagnosis, prescription, and treatment. Therefore, doctors must create time for their patients to avoid dissatisfaction.

The introduction of managed care has seen doctors spend less than 30 minutes with their patients during clinical appointments because other factors than quality services drive them (Bell et al., 2018). Many patients rank the essence of providing detailed information during clinical visits among the need for long consultation time. Generally, many patients only get satisfied due to the visit length during clinical appointments. Doctors under managed care face balancing patient satisfaction and revenue generation objectives (Gopal, 2022). The program is pre-paid such that doctors lack the right to charge what they feel match the patients’ conditions. Therefore, patients’ satisfaction plays an essential role as a drive to doctors’ speed during clinical appointments.

Risks of Malpractices

Malpractices in the healthcare system are among significant concerns that involve managed care systems. Due to restrictions in charging patients, some doctors engage in fraudulent activities to ensure their hospitals make extra money from the program (Gopal, 2022). A study on physicians from Oregon and Colorado established that visit length significantly affects the malpractice rate. Doctors with longer visit hours with their patients recorded fewer claims of malpractice (Young et al., 2018). On the contrary, doctors with short visit hours recorded a higher rate of malpractices. The study compared doctors that spend 18-20 minutes with their patients versus those that spend less than 15 minutes (Bell et al., 2018). Generally, some doctors take advantage of the limited time to coarse their clients to pay extra for the services they will provide them outside the prescribed rates covered by the managed care program.

Therefore, malpractice risks could negatively affect doctors’ speed during clinical appointments. Doctors who want to maintain healthcare practice sanity should adjust their perceptions about the managed care system and focus on providing quality care services (Mullner, 2016). Malpractice during clinical appointments affects visit lengths by patients. The acceptability of managed care has been significantly affected due to prevalent malpractices by some doctors during clinical consultations (Gopal, 2022). Therefore, malpractice is among the drivers of doctors’ speed during clinical appointments.

Conclusion/Summary

Debate on how managed care drives doctors’ speed to clinical appointments has emerged in recent years with no defined answers to the study’s main question. Some argue in favor of doctors’ speed to clinical appointments such as revenue objectives, optimizing efficiency, and reduced missed working hours. The variation in patients’ perception of visit length during clinical consultations complicates the debate further. Managed care system comes with rigid procedures that bar doctors from imposing extra costs on patients beyond the pre-paid amount regardless of their conditions. As a result, many doctors resort to speeding up clinical appointments to optimize revenue from as many patients as possible. Many doctors use the limited time they have scheduled with patients to maximize the efficiency of their profession. In addition, some patients prefer managed care for doctors’ speed because they save on missed working hours. However, managed care can negatively influence doctors’ speed because cases of patients’ satisfaction and malpractice risks sometimes emerge. Therefore, managed care drives doctors’ speed to clinical appointments in two dimensions, which could affect patient outcomes and the program’s overall objective. 

References

Bell, N., Lòpez-DeFede, A., Wilkerson, R. C., & Mayfield-Smith, K. (2018). Precision of provider licensure data for mapping member accessibility to Medicaid managed care provider networks. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1), 1-10. https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-018-3776-4

Gopal, S. (2022). Top Five Challenges Facing Doctors Right Now - Rendia. Rendia. Retrieved 16 May 2022, from https://rendia.com/resources/insights/top-five-challenges/

Mullner, R. (2016). managed care | health insurance and system. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 16 May 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/managed-care

Noseworthy, J. (2019). The future of care—preserving the patient–physician relationship. New England Journal of Medicine, 381(23), 2265-2269. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsr1912662

Young, R., Burge, S., Kumar, K., Wilson, J., & Ortiz, D. (2018). A time-motion study of primary care physicians’ work in the electronic health record era. Family medicine, 50(2), 91-99. https://journals.stfm.org/familymedicine/2018/february/young-2017-0121/