About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

HRD-82-31 1 (1981-12-29)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabctt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 


UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE
        WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548


0-205827


DECEMBER 29, 1981


The Honorable Richard S. Schweiker
The Secretary of Health and
  Human Services

Dear Mr. Secretary:

     Subject: How Health Maintenance Organizations
                Control Costs (HRD-82-31)

     In evaluating how health maintenance organizations :(HMOs)
have attempted to reduce health care costs, we have obtained in-
formation from 12 HMOs which we believe would be useful to the
Office of Health Maintenance Organizations (OHMO) in its role of
providing technical advice and assistance to HMOs. In general,
the HMOs used various techniques intended to

     --control hospital admissions and lengths of stay,

     --limit the use of hospital emergency rooms to cases re-
       quiring such care,

     --provide incentives to physicians to contain costs, and

     --foster efficient and effective management practices.

Enclosure I lists the individual techniques and the HMOs that
used them.

     We believe OHMO should disseminate information on effective
cost control techniques to federally qualified HMOs, particularly
beginning and financially troubled ones. This, in our view, would
effectively complement OHMO's past efforts to identify and dissem-
inate information on why HMOs have failed or defaulted on Federal
loans.

     The following sections describe the cost control techniques
identified during our review. We would be happy to provide addi-
tional details on request.


1 17iflI6IIIIll if
   117166


(102050)


( .. '' Y


   J
.... .; ,;,


HUMAN RIESOU RCU
   DIV1ISION

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most