01:920:210 Study Guide - Managed Care, Consumerism, Laity
Document Summary
Both of these issues are based on the organization of medical practice around the concept of financial profit in a free enterprise system. Advocates argue that this system enhances efficiency in providing services and incentive for research and development. Physicians are still in charge, but they are more of equal with the people they work with. One defect is that laypersons do judge technical performance, regardless of whether they are competent to do so. Layperson - someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person. The choices of clients act as a form of social control over professionals and can reduce the survival of a group as a profession. A second major defect in the argument legitimizing the medical profession"s autonomy relates to physicians" efforts at peer regulation. Autonomy - self-government or the right of self-government. Norms governing colleague relations, essentially rules of etiquette, restricted the evaluation of work and discouraged the expression of criticism.
