Health Maintainence Organization (HMO) Reform

By Marie H. Fennell

We need a Patient's Bill of Rights that guarantees Californians they will not be turned away when they need medical attention.

While the Congress has debated the nature of the reforms there is unanimous opinion that changes must be made to help citizens cope with the imbalance of power. Large HMOs are currently practicing medicine by withholding care and rationing care as well as restricting physicians from providing care. In many cases, physicians are even restricted from telling the patient all the alternatives to care. HMOs appear to be pushing low cost alternatives with little or no regard for the specific medical care a patient needs. Patient appeals are costly in terms of time thus resulting in rationing of care for the purpose of lowering costs and in many cases providing inferior care or no care at all.

Nobody can fault a business trying to make profit but when it does so at the literal cost of life and limb that business must be made to understand that there is a value to life which must be weighed against profits. We must enact a Patient's Bill of Rights to ensure medical decisions are made by licensed medical professional and not by administrators who are interested in "the bottom line." We must ensure prompt and fair reviews of HMO patient care decisions.