单选题
{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is
followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are
four choices marked A, B, C, and D. You should decide on the best choice and
mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET by blackening the corresponding letter in
the brackets. In most sectors of the economy, it
is the seller who attempts to act a potential buyer with various inducements of
price, quality, and utility, and it is the buyer who makes the decision. In the
health care industry, however, the doctor-patient relationship is a mirror image
of the ordinary relationship between producer and consumer. Once an individual
has chosen to see a physician, the physician usually makes all significant
purchasing decisions: whether the patient should return "next Wednesday",
whether X-rays are needed, whether drugs should be prescribed, etc.
This is particularly significant in relation to hospital care. The
physician must certify the need for hospitalization, determine what procedures
will be performed, and announce when the patient may be discharged. The patient
may be consulted about some of these decisions, but in the main it is the
doctor's judgments that are final. Little wonder then that in the eyes of the
hospital it is the physician who is the real "consumer". As a consequence, the
medical staff represents the "power centre" in hospital policy and
decision-making, not the administration. Although usually,
there are in this situation four identifiable participants--the physician, the
hospital, the patient and the payer (generally an insurance carrier or
government) -- the physician makes the essential decision for all of them. The
hospital becomes an extension of the physician, the payer generally meets most
of the bona fide bills generated by the physician/ hospital, and for the most
part, the patient plays a passive role. In routine or minor illensses, or just
plain worries, the patient's options are, of course, much greater with respect
to use and price. But in illnesses that are of some significance, such choice
tends to evaporate. And it is for these illnesses that the bulk of the health
care dollar is spent. We estimate that about 75 --80 percent of health care
expenditures are determined by physicians. For this reason, economy measures
directed at patients or the general public are relatively ineffective.
单选题
In this passage, the author's primary purpose is to ______.
A. criticize doctors for exercising too much control over patient
B. analyze some important economic factors in health care
C. urge hospitals to reclaim their decision-making authority
D. inform potential patients of their health care rights