PSROs and Peer Review: Problems and Opportunities

Legislation passed in 1972 mandated the establishment of Professional Standards Review Organizations to review the quality of medical services to beneficiaries of the Medicare, Medicaid, and the Maternal and Child Health programs. Physicians in all 203 designated PSRO areas must show a viable organization by January 1976, or a nonphysician group may be designated as a PSRO. The author discusses the provisions of the law, reactions of physicians and others, the law's alleged shortcomings, and the questions that arise as a result of its passage. He cites some preliminary studies in the psychiatric literature that report positive effects of reviews of patient care.