Is UnitedHealth playing the ACP for a bunch of fools?
UnitedHealth Group is simply responding to the request by the ACP for a “new model” of primary care by giving them what they want. But you can put lipstick on a pig all day long and it’s still a pig. Whether you call it medical home, pay for performance, or just plain managed care, as long as the big insurers (and the feds) are the ones who determine the doctor’s viability as a practitioner, and as long as patients are the individuals who cause doctors to risk their viability as practitioners, the genuine practice of medicine – and the fabled doctor-patient relationship – must remain fond dreams.
