What is managed care?

Managed care is a healthcare delivery system that integrates the financing and delivery of healthcare services to improve quality and control costs. This model emphasizes coordination of care among healthcare providers, ensuring that patients receive appropriate, efficient services while also managing expenditures. By bringing together providers and payers, managed care organizations are able to negotiate prices, create provider networks, and focus on patient outcomes, which contributes to overall population health improvement.

The other options do not accurately convey the comprehensive nature of managed care. Preventive care is a significant aspect of many managed care programs, but it is not the sole focus. A government-run health insurance plan describes specific types of insurance like Medicare or Medicaid but does not encompass the broader integrated framework of managed care. Prioritizing hospital care over outpatient services contradicts the managed care approach, which often encourages outpatient services to reduce costs and provide more effective, accessible care.