The article also describes some ways for patients to protect themselves in HMOs. Another article in The New York Times on Dec. 4 illustrates how patient care is suffering because of health care by for-profit companies facing tight cost controls from private insurers and the government. The story describes how the largest company providing dialysis allegedly uses equipment and procedures that cut costs and raise profits, often at the expense of patients' health. The company operates with few rules to assure high-quality care, and induces doctors to play along by giving them a share of the cash. Doctors and nurses are being replaced by technicians and others who receive little or no formal medical training.
Some clinics allegedly use out of date, dirty or damaged dialysis equipment.
Despite studies stating an increase incidence of death among dialysis patients treated at centers that re-used equipment, this practice is being continued.