managed care

noun

: a system of health care (as by an HMO or PPO) that controls costs by placing limits on physicians' fees and by restricting the patient's choice of physicians

Examples of managed care in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

With Medicaid managed care plans dispensing the state’s dollars, though, few families are approved for round-the-clock nursing care, children’s advocates say. —Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 17 Jan. 2025

Medicare Advantage Instead, much of the debate next year could focus on Medicare Advantage managed care plans, mostly run by private insurance companies. —Howard Gleckman, Forbes, 10 Dec. 2024

Backlash While the costs and benefits of MA are mixed, prior authorizations for care and limited access to in-network providers have generated a strong public backlash against private health insurance of all kinds, especially managed care. —Howard Gleckman, Forbes, 10 Dec. 2024

Medicare Advantage managed care plans, which currently insure more than half of all Medicare beneficiaries, may provide very limited long-term care-like services. —Howard Gleckman, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1982, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

managed care

noun

man·​aged care ˌman-ijd- 

: a system of providing health care (as by an HMO or a PPO) that is designed to control costs through managed programs in which the physician accepts constraints on the amount charged for medical care and the patient is limited in the choice of a physician