Patients' Rights and Physician Accountability: Problems With PSROs

Abstract

Professional Standards Review Organizations (PSRO's) were established by federal legislation in 1972 to provide a mechanism for review, by locally-established groups of physicians, of the quality and appropriateness of care received by patients under Medicare or Medicaid. The author explores four normative problems associated with PSRO's: the problem of bureaucracy incapable of responding to individual needs; the problem of cost consciousness overcoming the commitment to quality; the problem of interfering with other societal values and goals; and the problem of value judgments being made by professionals rather than patients. (KIE abstract)