Corporatization of medicine: the use of medical management information systems to increase the clinical productivity of physicians

Abstract

Large corporate health care firms are seeking to reorganize the production of health services under growing cost-containment pressures from government and business payors. Medical management information systems (MMIS) applications are producing an increasing number of financially motivated utilization management interventions designed to constrain wide variations in the practice of medicine. In this article we examine how innovations in MMIS will be used to monitor practitioners' clinical decisions in order to improve the productivity of physicians and other health care personnel. As MMIS technology shifts power from previously autonomous physicians to corporate health care managers, the medical profession is likely to be subjected to far more administrative and bureaucratic controls than conceivable even a few years ago.