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Compassion breaks through the managed care mold

In these times of managed and third-party regulated care, physician-parent relations, or, in the case of a pediatrician, physician-family relations, are becoming more bureaucratized, with many barriers introduced between both parties.

One outcome of this new health care trend is the feeling of suspicion on the part of the family that the primary doctor's loyalties are split between the patient and the insurance company or managed care organization.

In the new environment, instead of seeing doctors in the traditional friendly way portrayed in not-so-old-time books and movies, families frequently see their doctors as professionals who have a physician's license but who, as far as their insurance company is concerned, are "gatekeepers" in the "cafeteria" of available health care services.