Cassandra Responded to Topic 2 DQ 2.docx - Cassandra...

Cassandra Responded to Topic 2 DQ 2
Hello Cassandra,
Thank you for your elaborate post on health maintenance organizations (HMOs). This
group or network offers health insurance for a monthly or yearly charge. An HMO comprises
several medical insurance companies that restrict coverage to medical services provided by
physicians and other service providers who have an HMO contract (Obikeze & Onwujekwe,
2020). The concept of preventative medicine was not widely accepted at the time. Some key
ideas behind HMOs, such as rewarding healthcare practitioners and organizations who prioritize
patients' health, are credited to a Minnesota doctor named Dr. Paul Ellwood (Falkson &
Srinivasan, 2022).
The HMO Act provided funding to assist HMO development and enhance general U.S.
healthcare while lowering expenses. HMOs achieve these objectives by integrating health
insurance and healthcare delivery inside the same company, which aligns the incentives of the
payer and provider of healthcare (Obikeze & Onwujekwe, 2020). By encouraging, for instance,
the switch from inpatient to outpatient care when necessary and the use of less expensive and
unnecessary medical interventions, this structure aims to result in lower healthcare costs