Final answer:
Care Coordination is the use of primary care physicians to manage and coordinate all necessary health care services for an enrollee in a managed care plan, aiming to provide cost-effective, preventative, and streamlined care.
Step-by-step explanation:
The use of primary care physicians to coordinate health care services needed by an enrollee in a managed care plan is known as Care Coordination. In this system, often associated with health maintenance organizations (HMOs), primary care physicians act as gatekeepers to manage patient care by coordinating services, referrals, and treatment plans. This approach aims to streamline care, reduce unnecessary services, and focus on preventative measures.
HMOs operate on a prepayment basis where providers are reimbursed a fixed fee per patient, unlike the traditional fee-for-service system which incentivizes the provision of more procedures and tests by paying providers for each service rendered. In the context of managed care, care coordination can help address adverse selection and moral hazard challenges by aligning the incentives of providers with the goals of cost-effective and efficient patient care.