15232. PHYSICIAN ETHICS & MANAGED CARE. This paper analyzes a crucial issue in contemporary physician ethics: physicians' need to reconcile their primary duty to their patients' welfare with their obligations and interests arising from a health care system dominated by the managed care model. Following an overview of the issue, the analysis explores specific examples of physicians' confrontation of this ethical conflict. The impact of financial incentives, gag orders, and MCO-dictated clinical guidelines are considered, as are the implications of physicians' willingness and/or tendency to try and "game the system." The concluding section makes suggestions on how to modify the system to reduce physicians' ethical conflict and encourage physician adherence to professional ethics. KEYWORDS: physician ethics managed health care ethical issues doctors. APA Style. 11 pages, 45 footnotes, 16 bibliographic references.