Releasing managed care's chokehold on healthcare providers

This article addresses the imbalance of power between managed care organizations and physicians regarding the content of treatment information given to patients. The author provides a thoughtful discussion surrounding informed consent issues in a managed care environment, and how managed care organizations maintain their control over physicians. The author concludes by offering varied and insightful methods to even out the disparity of power.     

Highly Managed Democracy

The author analyzes which characteristics of the political system created under Putin have and have not changed since Medvedev became president. He considers the likely impact of the economic crisis.     

Fleeting fame under the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006

Legal context: When Congress enacted the Federal Trademark Dilution Act in1996, it intended to create a uniform federal cause of actionfor trade mark dilution. Unfortunately, the statutory languageselected by Congress created certain ambiguities, includinghow famous a trade mark had to be to merit dilution protectionunder the statute. Confusion developed as to whether a markmerely needed renown in a limited geographic area or industry—aconcept that became known as ‘niche fame’—orwhether it needed national renown to qualify as a ‘famousmark’. Key points: In 2006, Congress enacted the Trademark Dilution Revision Actand therein provided a concrete definition for a famous markthat ostensibly removed the ability to qualify for dilutionrelief where the mark was famous only within a particular niche.It was uncertain how courts that had previously favoured theniche fame theory would apply Congress's new definition. However,a district court in the Ninth Circuit, one of the strongestproponents of niche fame, recently held that niche fame is nolonger a viable theory under the Lanham Act or California statelaw as a result of the 2006 amendment. Practical significance: This decision portends that courts will fall in line with Congress'samendment and will deny dilution relief under federal law toparties whose marks are famous only in a particular geographicarea or industry. Additionally, the decision provides some guidanceand predictability as to how states may interpret the viabilityof niche fame under their respective dilution statutes in lightof Congress's 2006 amendment.     

Foreign fame is not enough to confer US trade mark rights

On appeal from the Southern District of New York, the SecondCircuit affirmed the award of summary judgment against ITC'strade mark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertisingclaims under state and federal law, holding that the famousmarks doctrine was not incorporated by Congress into the LanhamAct and thus not a federally protected right.     

Managed competition of alternative delivery systems

The markets for health insurance and health care are not naturally competitive: they are susceptible to many forms of market failure. Health plans and consumers may use strategies that lead to inequity and inefficiency. But experience with successful models of competition suggests that tools are available to enable sponsors (active collective agents on the demand side who contract with health plans to structure and manage competition) to use competition to achieve a reasonable degree of efficiency and equity for their sponsored populations. All this implies a more complex, dynamic, and sophisticated view of competition than one usually finds in apologia for free markets. A free market is not possible in health insurance.     

The Managed Growth Trickle-Up Theory

My title is designed to elicit warm vibes from the free marketeers as well as from the public controllers. For when devising programs to relate the interests of the poor and the environment, it is as necessary to seek consensus in order to progress as it is in other contexts². The managed growth trickle-up theory is designed to be a response by local and regional governments to move with alacrity in the provision of racially and economically integrated housing. Surely, now that Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974⁴ is law, localities and regions can no longer blame their segregative practices on bureaucratic HUD bungling. The locus of blame is now not only clearer; failure to integrate housing is also more expensive.     

Fair Share Housing for Managed Growth

The Mt. Laurel decision represents the culmination of judicial thinking in exclusionary zoning type litigation. Implicit in decisions striking down local land use controls found to be “exclusionary” in nature has been the notion that a community has a legal duty to accept a “fair share” of the housing needs of the region. Fair share housing now begins to take on some substance with the New Jersey court's decision. Similar language on responsibilities for regional needs may be found in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions in Kit-Mar and Girsh, and in the federal district court's opinion in Petaluma.     

司法鉴定应实行统一管理

我国现行司法鉴定体制,是自上世纪五十年代,借鉴前苏联模式,逐步形成发展起来的。其突出弊端,就是涉及司法鉴定的管理权限不清、职责不明,导致鉴定工作在准入资质、鉴定程序与标准、行业监管等方面迄今难以形成统一、规范的制度,不仅难以实现社会鉴定服务资源在市场经济条件下的优化配置及其效能的充分发挥,而且在一定程度上影响到诉讼活动的正常进行。每年全国人大、政协会议期间,不少人大代表和政协委员在提案、议案和建议中,都对司法鉴定因多头管理造成秩序混乱、影响司法公正与效率,并加重当事人负担的现象给予了强烈批评,要求从法治的…     

Managed care liability and the capitated provider

While there have been no reported cases as yet on the subject of ERISA preemption of claims arising from utilization review decisions by providers, it will unquestionably be a significant issue facing providers that participate in capitated arrangements. If preemption is determined not to be available, providers will be exposed to risks from which health plans are currently shielded. Providers conducting utilization review should be following this issue as it develops, but should also be obtaining insurance for this risk to the extent it is available (e.g., it will not be available for punitive damages). Providers should also consider negotiating provisions in their contracts with health plans to the effect that any utilization review conducted by the provider is on behalf of the health plan and that the provider's utilization review activities will be covered under the health plan's liability insurance.     

Managed Floating as a Monetary Policy Strategy

Although there seems to be a broad consensus among economists that purely floating or completely fixed exchange rates (the so-called corner solutions) are the only viable alternatives of exchange rate management, many countries do not behave according to this paradigm and adopt a strategy within the broad spectrum of exchange rate regimes that is limited by the two corner solutions. Many of these intermediate regimes are characterized by significant foreign exchange market interventions and a certain degree of exchange rate flexibility with non-preannounced exchange rate targets. While academic research in this area usually concentrates on some specific aspects of intermediate regimes (such as the effectiveness of interventions or institutional aspects), managed floating has rarely been analyzed as a comprehensive monetary policy strategy. In this paper, we present a monetary policy framework in which central banks simultaneously use the exchange rate and the interest rate as operating targets of monetary policy. We explain the mechanics of foreign exchange market interventions and sterilization and we explain why a central bank has an interest of controlling simultaneously the two operating targets. We derive the monetary policy rules for the two operating targets from a simple open economy macro model in which the uncovered interest parity condition and the monetary conditions index play a central role.