The present study undertakes a scoping review on the influence of managed care on the perception of physicians’ professional autonomy to determine how many studies there are in the literature on the perception of decreased physician’s professional autonomy with the introduction of managed care, the consequences of this for the health system and studies that indicate possible coping strategies for this problem.
Online databases were used to identify articles published from 2017 to 2021.
Two articles related managed care to a decrease in professional autonomy, six articles showed a relationship between independence and professional satisfaction, and three articles concluded that a decrease in autonomy contributes to physicians’ rejection of managed care. Two articles related physicians’ resistance to innovation in information technology (IT) due to fear of reduced autonomy. One article related the decrease in autonomy to the decline in the supply of new professionals and three articles indicated that the management model focused on stimulating intrinsic motivators, such as professional autonomy, can generate promising results.
Although robust studies are showing that managed care interferes with the perception of the physician’s professional autonomy with consequences for the health system, there is still a lack of studies that assess the best strategy for coping with this problem.
Keywords:
professional autonomy, burnout, managed care, health care reform, professionalism
Ovidio, R. A. ., Ovidio, E. M. M. ., & Rego, G. . (2025). The influence of managed care on the physician’s perception of professional autonomy: a scoping review. Acta Bioethica, 31(1), 109–123. Retrieved from https://revistaidiem.uchile.cl/index.php/AB/article/view/78376
