Mark Landiak, CDI President, says, HFMA members organizations are concerned with the financial impact that both internal and external factors have on the bottom line. Customer service, both internal and external, is certainly one of these factors and CDI is pleased to offer a series of tailored customer satisfaction services through HFMA Learning Solutions. In recent news, the Patients Bill of Rights sailed through the House of Representatives, giving Americans new legal powers against their health insurance companies, including the right to sue them for damages in state courts. The House bill must still be reconciled with a Senate measure passed earlier. Among a long list of new protections under the bill, patients would have the right to go to the nearest emergency room without authorization, select a doctor not included in their health network, obtain a specialist for chronic health problems and appeal coverage decisions to an independent outside panel.
Consumers are a driving force in the healthcare system.
One of the basic themes of this book is that consumers are playing an increasingly important role in healthcare financing and decision making. The book states that consumers will move into a position of dominance in healthcare during the early years of the new century. One of the chapters summarizes a variety of factors that point to a more consumer-driven healthcare system. The report later states, Five years after the widespread introduction of managed care, consumers are once again expressing dissatisfaction with the general state of health care in America. Much of their ire is directed at the managed care industry.