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Book Cover
Book
Author Rodwin, Marc A.

Title Medicine, money,and morals : physicians' conflicts of interest / Marc A. Rodwin
Published New York : Oxford University Press, 1993

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  174.20973 Rid/Mma  AVAILABLE
Description xvii, 411 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Contents I. The Problem and the Profession's Response. 1. Physicians' Conflicts of Interest. 2. The Medical Profession's Response: 1890-1992 -- II. Current Problems and Institutional Responses. 3. Incentives to Increase Services: The Range of Existing Practices. 4. The Dangers of Incentives to Increase Services and the Ineffectiveness of Current Responses. 5. Incentives to Decrease Services In HMOs and Hospitals. 6. The Dangers of Incentives to Decrease Services and the Ineffectiveness of Current Responses -- III. Inferences for Policy. 7. Fiduciary Law and the Professions: Regulation of Civil Servants, Business Professionals, and Lawyers. 8. What Needs to Be Done? -- App. A The Concept of Conflict of Interest -- App. B Note on Physicians' Divided Loyalties -- App. C Bioethics and Medical School Ethics Education -- App. D The Sources and Data Used -- App. E Excerpts from Medical Codes of Ethics
Summary As a result, patients often receive too many or too few medical services, or the wrong kind, sometimes undergoing painful, dangerous, or unnecessary medical procedures. Rodwin shows what can be learned from the way society has coped with conflicts of interest involving other professionals (lawyers, government officials and financial professionals), all of whom are held to higher standards of accountability than doctors. He explains, too, why simplistic solutions such as public disclosure of conflicts or government ownership of health services won't work. He offers examples of what can be done to help reduce these problems by regulation, tax policy, auditing, and peer review. He recommends that we prevent doctors from entering situations which give rise to conflicts of interest by subjecting them to oversight and by imposing sanctions for breach of trust
In Medicine, Money, and Morals, Marc A. Rodwin examines these conflicts of interest, explains why the profession has failed to cope successfully with them, and shows how they have become worse over the past century. He looks at how - in response to dubious practices of the past such as fee-splitting, physicians' ownership of medical facilities, drug dispensing, and the like - the profession developed ethical guidelines but was unable to enforce them. He shows how current public policies and institutional practices now offer doctors financial incentives to promote various goals at odds with the interest of patients. These policies and practices, Rodwin writes, tie doctors' personal financial well-being to medical care providers - hospitals, medical suppliers, and pharmaceutical firms - and also to insurers and other third party payers. Doctors today are tempted to think of how they will fare financially by making particular clinical decisions
Our failure to face physicians' conflicts of interest has distorted the way medicine is practiced, compromised the loyalty of doctors to patients, and harmed patients, society, and the integrity of the medical profession. For those concerned with the quality of their health care, the problems of our health care system, or medical ethics, Medicine, Money, and Morals is a provocative look into the current health care crisis and a powerful prescription for change
Physicians' conflicts of interest are rampant in the American medical community. Today it is not uncommon for doctors to refer patients to clinics or labs in which they have a financial interest; for hospitals to offer incentives to physicians who refer patients to them; or for drug companies to provide lucrative give-aways to entice doctors to use their "brand name" drugs
Analysis Medicine Economics Ethics
United States
Conflict of interest
Fiduciary duties
Health care
Legislation
Medical ethics
Medical profession
Morals
Overseas item
United States
Bibliography Includes index
Subject Conflict of interests.
Medical care -- United States -- Cost control -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Medical care -- United States -- Decision making -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Medical ethics -- United States -- Cost control.
Medical ethics -- United States -- Decision making.
Medical care -- United States -- Cost control.
Medical economics.
Medical ethics.
Physicians -- Professional ethics.
Conflict of Interest.
Physicians.
Ethics, Medical.
Conflict of Interest.
Economics, Medical.
Ethics, Medical.
Morals.
Physicians.
Rhysicians
LC no. 92049488
ISBN 0195080963
0195096479 (paperback)