Consumerism arises when patients acquire and use medical information from sources apart from their physicians, such as the Internet and direct-to-patient advertising. Consumerism has been hailed as a means of improving quality. This need not be the result. Consumerist patients place additional...

Consumerism arises when patients acquire and use medical information from sources apart from their physicians, such as the Internet and direct-to-patient advertising. Consumerism has been hailed as a means of improving quality. This need not be the result. Consumerist patients place additional...

Since the mid-1980s, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) have grown rapidly in the United States. Despite initial successes in constraining health care costs, HMOs have come under increasing criticism due to their restrictive practices. To remain viable, this would seem to suggest that HMOs...