If the new grievance process provides a floor under quality, the new information requirements point consumers toward the best care available. Quality is often an issue of where you get your care, with wide variations at sites within easy driving distance of each other. Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga. Patients can sue for damages caused by HMOs' decisions. Injured persons can go to the nearest emergency room without getting prior permission from their insurance company.
Patients can appeal the decisions of their health insurance plan with outside arbitration.
HMOs and insurance companies cannot contractually limit what doctors can tell patients. HMOs can't give bonuses to doctors who deny certain treatments or keep test volume low. The very essence of managed care is limits on consumer choice and artificial caps on payments. The quality of health care has suffered, evidenced by countless horror stories across the country. One of the primary reasons I sold my dental practice in 1994 to run for Congress was to make sure the Clinton plan was dead for good.