The Fund supports networks of state health policy decision makers to help identify, inspire, and inform policy leaders.
The Milbank Memorial Fund supports two state leadership programs for legislative and executive branch state government officials committed to improving population health.
The Fund identifies and shares policy ideas and analysis to advance state health leadership, strong primary care, and sustainable health care costs.
Keep up with news and updates from the Milbank Memorial Fund. And read the latest blogs from our thought leaders, including Fund President Christopher F. Koller.
The Fund publishes The Milbank Quarterly, as well as reports, issues briefs, and case studies on topics important to health policy leaders.
The Milbank Memorial Fund is is a foundation that works to improve population health and health equity.
December 1973 (Volume 51)
Quarterly Article
Eliot Freidson
March 2024
Mar 11, 2024
Feb 27, 2024
Back to The Milbank Quarterly
Based on an extensive field study of the practitioners in a large, prepaid service contract group practice, this paper discusses how a prepaid service contract and closed-panel practice brings a new dimension into doctor-patient relations and how physicians respond to it. Unable to manage “unreasonable” demands for service by use of a fee-barrier or encouragement to “go elsewhere,” as in traditional, solo, fee-for-service practice, they were particularly upset by a new type of “demanding patient” who claimed services on the basis of contractual rights and threatened appeal to higher bureaucratic authority. Modes of dealing with such patients are briefly discussed.
Author(s): Eliot Freidson
Download the Article
Read on JSTOR
Volume 51, Issue 4 (pages 473–488) Published in 1973
