Managed care enters the exam room as insurers buy doctor groups

Kaiser Health News staff writer Christopher Weaver, working in collaboration with The Washington Post, reports: "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. ... 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 (Weaver, 7/1). Read the story.

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.