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APS Bulletin • Volume 11, Number 4, July/August 2001

Resource Reviews

John D. Loeser, MD, Department Editor

Managed Care and Pain

Reviewed by Jeffrey Livovich, MD

S.D. Lande & R.J. Kulich (Eds.), American Pain Society, Glenview, IL, 2000, 180 pages, $30 (APS members, $20) (softcover), ISBN 0-9677735-0-4

This book does a superb job educating the pain provider, as well as other professionals, about managed care. It has a neutral stance and does not comment on an emotional level. The information is invaluable and should be required reading for all students and providers of pain services as well as managed care professionals. The concepts outlined in this book will be useful for anyone who wishes to understand the contemporary world of managed care.

In addition to the broad concepts that are addressed, there also is a significant amount of practical information. Chapters such as “Anatomy of a Managed Care Contract” and “Marketing to Managed Care Organizations” provide a primer on approaches that pain providers will find useful in doing business with a managed care organization (MCO).

Chapters included in this book are

A careful reading of this book will provide an excellent base of knowledge about managed care. This book accomplishes the difficult task of presenting complex topics in short, easy-to-read chapters.

In the forward, Grabois outlines the objectives of the book as the following:

The book successfully accomplishes all of these goals.

The only caution that I have about this book is true for all books dealing with the topic of health care: It is such a rapidly changing area that what is true today may have changed dramatically within a year. I greatly enjoyed reading this book. As a pain physician and a managed care medical director, I give this book two thumbs up.

Jeffrey Livovich is a Medical Director and National Pain Medicine Consultant of Aetna U.S. Healthcare in San Ramon, CA.

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