Recent Books and Other Publications

Managed Care on Trial seeks to arm healthcare providers and health plans with knowledge that will better enable them to bridge the gap between fiscal mandates and clinical standards, to pursue the right medical course, and to reduce the financial risk of a negative publicity and a costly trial. It is also oriented as a primer for consumers seeking better ways of addressing and solving the serious issues that can arise in our current health delivery system. Included in the book are reviews of some of the most dramatic legal cases involving managed care complete with behind-the-scenes information and analysis on what these cases mean for health plans, providers and patients alike.

Managed Care on Trial is not meant to be a diatribe against nor apologetics for managed care. Rather, it is a call to recapture that which is good about managed care and to jettison or improve those techniques, processes and methods that are suspect or wrong-sighted. This message may be disdained by some but welcomed by most, who invite a stimulus for continuous change and improvement in the system.

What people are saying about Managed Care on Trial...

• If HMOs read and put into action , Robbins practical ideas, patients will bypass the courtroom and appropriately go directly to the operating room. .. The patients who value their lives, the doctor who values his practice and the HMO who values the bottom line can all learn lifesaving as well as cost savings principles by reading Managed Care On Trial... Mark Hiepler, J.D.

• As an emergency physician, I am often made aware of the inequities and inhumanity of managed care systems that often supplant individual need with rules governing populations and allocated funds....Not only does the book inform and deliciously entertain but also offers useful tactics as well . His description of managed care's de facto economic experimentation i.e. changing the rules, such as allowable days of stay, to suit a cost goal, is particularly brilliant…. The book, moreover, is not only informative but is enjoyable as a courtroom thriller. Indeed, in his final chapter, Dr. Robbins puts "managed care on trial", brilliantly and provocatively... Jacek Franaschek, M.D. - FACEP Practicing Emergency Physician and Past President American Academy of Emergency Physicians

• Dr. Robbins is right on target!…[His] thoughtful analysis illuminates the potential for conflict among all participants in American health care… Readers as diverse as a lawyer planning to depose the CEO on an HMO or a patient seeking assistance in comparing providers, will find this book a well reasoned reference... Philip H. Corboy, Partner - Corboy and Demetrio, Chicago, IL

• Enlightening, Empowering, Essential. Dennis Robbins is that rare individual who is able to understand the worlds of healthcare structure, law; ethics, finance, and people. He brings those capabilities to the reader.. Dr Robbins insightful and incisive analyses of emerging controversies and challenges in managed care are unparalleled. His refreshing and captivating style transforms otherwise complicated issues into useful information to empower consumers and care givers alike... Jeanne Boling, M.S.N., C.R.R.N., C.D.M.S., C.C.M., Case Management Society of America, President Case Management Inc.

Integrating Managed Care and Ethics: Transforming Challenges into Positive Outcomes identifies and faces the ethical challenges managed care presents and provides direction to transform such challenges into more positive outcomes. The book provides physicians and other healthcare professionals with enough knowledge to buttress standards endemic to their practice and profession as well as to negotiate and participate as active and informed partners rather than passive recipients. The book is also a perfect resource for payers, healthcare executives, case managers and diverse managed care partners seeking better ways of addressing and solving the problems posed by the rapid transformation and emergence of non-traditional healthcare and healthcare financing models.

Integrating Managed Care and Ethics: Transforming Challenges into Positive Outcomes gives the reader, whether it be the healthcare professional, caregiver, healthcare policy maker or consumer, a heightened awareness and sensitivity to ethical concerns and emerging challenges in healthcare so they can respond as agents in the process of change rather than victims.

What people are saying about Integrating Managed Care and Ethics...

• A comprehensive resource to which the caregivers, healthcare executives, attorneys as well as the general public can look to gain clarification, insight and direction... Mark O. Hiepler, J.D. Partner, Hiepler and Hiepler

• A Valuable and timely contribution that will help general readers as well as professionals, to better understand current problems under managed care and their potential solutions... Arnold Relman, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, The New England Journal of Medicine

Other Publications

Other Books

• Putting Health Care Promises into Practice, Thompson Learning, June 2000.
• Ethical and Legal Issues in Home Health and Long Term Care: Challenges and Solutions, June 1996.
• Legal and Ethical Issues in Cancer Care, Springfield IL Charles Thomas, 1983
• Ethical Dimensions of Clinical Medicine w A Dyer M.D. Ph.D., edited, Springfield, Charles Thomas, 1981.
• Ethical Issues in Biomedicine and Related Areas, Edited Conference Proceedings 1980.

Chapters in Books

• "Fiscal Arrogance: Questioning the Ethics of Capitation" w Doug Emery in Global Fees for Episodes of Care in press McGraw-Hill
• "Ethics and the New Synergy of Rehabilitation" w Ron Mangum J.D. published Proceedings of Joint American Hospital Assn./American Rehabilitation Conference, 1995.
• "Legal/Ethical Issues Re Care of Patients of Diminished Competence" Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Plenum Press, 1987
• "Legal/Ethical Issues in Terminal Illness for Patients/Families/Caregivers/Institutions" Loss and Anticipatory Grief, D.C. Heath, 1986.
• "Examining Rights of the Terminally Ill Incompetent Patient: Legal and Ethical Considerations" w John Blum J.D. S.M. in Ethical Dimensions of Clinical Medicine, Charles Thomas, 1981.
• "Uncertainty: An Unresolved Problem in Clinical Medicine/ Ethics" Ethical Dimensions of Clinical Medicine, Charles Thomas, 1981.
• "Institutional and Personnel Licensure in Hospice" w John Blum in Hospice Policy and Public Programs (ed.) Paul Torrens M.D., M.P.H. Chicago: American Hospital Assn. Publishing Company
• "A Prototype For Identifying and Adjudicating Ethical Conflict: The Robbins Model for Decision Making" in Grief, Dying, and Bereavement: Clinical Interventions for Caregivers by Therese Rando, Ph.D. Research Press, Champaign IL, 1984

Selected Articles

• Putting Healthcare Promises into Practice September 1999 Continuing Care pp 14-18
• Putting Care Above Profit: Revisiting Denial Of Payment Advocacy and Compromises Care April 1999 Continuing Care pp 18-23
• Ethics, Innovation, and Fitness? C'mon! ", Managed Healthcare May 1999
• The Silent PPO Managed Healthcare June 1999
• Legal Issues: News article Karen Johnson and Goodrich March 1999
• "Hippocrates: Friend or Foe of Managed Care: Managed Healthcare" in press
• "American Healthcare at the Crossroads" Managed Healthcare, January 1999
• "Does Managed Care Care? Managed Care On Trial", Health Care Review May 1998
• "Ethical Issues in Care: Unpacking Hidden and Aberrant Agendas" Homecare March 1996
• "Ethical Issues in Physician Capitation" (Letter) New England Journal of Medicine Jan 28, 1999
• "Managed Care in Transition: Transforming Adversity into Opportunity", Managed Healthcare, December 1998
• "Does Managed Care Care? Managed Care On Trial", Health Care Review May 1998
• "Ethical Issues in Homecare" Home Health Management and Practice Jan 1998
• "Ethical Issues in Physician Capitation" (letter) New England Journal of Medicine January 28, 1999
• "Managed Care in Transition: Transforming Adversity into Opportunity", Managed Healthcare, December 1998 (in press)
• "American Healthcare at the Crossroads" Managed Healthcare, January 1999 (in press)
• "Does Managed Care Care? Managed Care On Trial", Health Care Review May 1998
• "Ethical Issues in Homecare" Home Health Management and Practice Jan 1998
• "Developing Tools For Addressing Ethical Issues " Home Health Management and Practice Vol 10 #1 December 1997
• "Managing Information Technologies: Ethical Concerns" The Remington Report, November 1996
• "Ethics and Managed Home Care: Unpacking Hidden and Aberrant Agendas" Homecare March 1996
• The DeGrella Case: New Implications and Opportunities for Healthy Reform", Kentucky Hospitals (KHA),1994.
• "The Edge of Life: Advance Directives Protocols and the Patient Self Determination Act", KHA, Winter 1992
• "Do Advance Directives Have More Rights Than Patients?"Kentucky Hospitals, Winter 1992
• "Are Rights Wrong?" Kentucky Hospitals, Winter 1991
• "The Integrated Policy" Hospital Corporation of America's Risk Management Review, Fall 1989
• "Do EMT's Have a Duty to Resuscitate?" Kentucky Hospitals, Spring 1989.
• "Policies to Integrate Clinical and Administrative Ethics" Michigan Hospitals 12/88
• "New Policies for Withholding/Withdrawing Life Supports" Provider, Fall 1988
• "Patients Wishes and Clinical Ethics", Kentucky Hospitals, Fall 1988
• "New Perspectives on DNR", Kentucky Hospitals, Spring 1988.
• Autonomy and Authority: New Directions in Substitute Decision Making, KHA, Special Legislative Issue, Fall 1985.
• "Dealing with Older Person's Fear of Medical Environments" ,Kentucky Hospitals, Fall 1985.
• "Agonizing Over Ethical Dilemmas or Developing Guiding Administrative Policies, It's your Choice!" KHA, Winter 1985
• "Update: The Removal of Feeding Supports in Long Term Care Facilities", J Long Term Care Administration, Spring, 85.
• "Must we Resuscitate Every Patient?" w T Gidley LL.B Journal of Emergency Nursing, (JEN) June, 1984
• "Legal and Ethical Considerations in Emergency Care The Journal of Emergency Services, Dec, 1984.
• "Uncertainty and Ethics: Implications for the Provision of Care" JEN June, 1983
• "Must Emergency Departments Save Every Life?" R.I. Medical Journal, December,, 1984.
• "The Convoluted Scope of Emergency Care", JEN January, 1984.
• "Reevaluating Talk of Rights in Medical Care" JEN June, 1983.
• "Uncertainty and Ethics: Implications for the Provision of Care" JEN June 1983.
• "Pain Control: Information, Palliation or Toxification?" JEN January, 1982.
• "Ethics and the Emergency Department Nurse" JEN, May 1982.
• "Reduced Federal Monies: Conflicts in Ethics and Policy" JEN ,July, 1982.
• Neighborhood Emergicenters: Balancing Access with Quality", JEN September ,1982.
• "Ethical Issues Regarding Cessation of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation" JEN, April 1981.
• "Ethical Issues in the Triage of Emergency Care" with Marge Hanson B.S.N and P, Weiss M.D. JEN June, 1981.
• "Cost Containment & Terminal Care: An Essay into the Ethics of Appropriateness" J Long Term Care Adm12/91
• "Court Intervention and the Diminution of Patient Rights" (letter) The New England Journal of Medicine Feb 26, 1981.
• "Dumping the Dope of Overdosed Patients" JEN, November, 1981.
• "Hospice Licensure and Regulation", Omega Report, February, 1980.
• "Developing a Model Geriatrics Patients' Bill of Rights" Omega Report, 3/80.
• "A Contemporary Dilemma in Regulation and Ethics" Omega Report, 2/80.
• Over a hundred book and computer hardware and software reviews.