Congress has struggled though, unsure of how to protect patients without driving up health care costs. Many critics would like medicine to go back to the days before managed care spread. Earlier in the Twentieth Century physicians were free from insurance companies, able to act solely as advocates for their patients. Supporters of the managed care system say that back then, doctors were likely to spend more than necessary, because their profit came directly to from the people. However, many go to their insurance companies and their needs are rejected as being too expensive.
Patients can go weeks without treatment.
Seventy people testified over three days and over seven hundred groups and individuals sent in their comments, too. The PWBA passed new and necessary regulations, including a requirement that health plans must respond to urgently needed patient claims within three days and all others, including reimbursement, within fifteen days. If denied, a full explanation of the decision would have to be provided, and appeals would have to be settled within thirty days. These regulations are important because they restore a vital right to the American people, the right to a fair process for resolving problems when benefits have been denied. Control and power must be shared with the people and doctors.