Managed care: A new way to report hassles

The AMA has created a physicians-only online form to report problems with health plans.

Editorial. Dec. 24/31, 2001.

Most physicians are well acquainted with managed care hassles. Most physicians have access to the Internet. These two heretofore unrelated realities of modern medical practice come together nicely at a new AMA Web site: an online, physician-only complaint form to report problems with health plans.

It is a fast, easy and confidential way for physicians anywhere in the country to tell the AMA what insurer hassles they are encountering, especially with managed care. The site then allows the AMA to gauge the frequency of specific problems, discover what health plans are involved and which geographic locations are hot spots. The resulting data can be used by the AMA in its efforts on behalf of patients and physicians to curtail health plan abuses.

This site was created by a directive of the AMA House of Delegates, acting on a resolution brought last year by the American College of Physicians--American Society of Internal Medicine. It represents the latest move by the AMA to back up physician advocacy about managed care with data that go beyond the anecdotal. Shortly before the launch of the Web site, the AMA presented a benchmark analysis of managed care competition in 40 large metropolitan managed markets and 19 state markets. That report shows that in many markets, a single insurer controls too much of the enrollee market -- oftentimes more than half -- suggesting the need for reforms that would allow physicians to stand up to plan dictates and actions. [...]