Insurers Buy Doctor Groups (Wapo)

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Managed Care Enters The Exam Room As Insurers Buy Doctor Groups.

Even if UnitedHealth Group isn't your insurance company, there's a good chance

it touches you in some way. The $100 billion behemoth sells technology to

hospitals and other insurers, distributes drugs, manages clinical trials and

offers continuing medical education, among other things, through the growing web

of firms it owns.

Now, that touch could get a lot more personal. United's health services wing is

quietly taking control of doctors who treat patients covered by United plans in

several areas of the country -- buying medical groups and launching physician

management companies, for example.

It's the latest sign that the barrier between companies that provide health

coverage and those that actually provide care to patients is crumbling...

Many patients insured by these companies are going to see much tighter

management of their care...

By managing doctors directly, insurers believe they can reshape the practice of

medicine - and protect their profits...

That thought unnerves consumer advocate of Health Access in

Sacramento, Calif., who worries profit pressure could affect care decisions...

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/July/01/unitedhealth-insurers-buy-d\

octors-groups.aspx