FOUL PLAY
Insurance company mistreatment
Doctors feel pressured by health insurance companies to alter the way they treat their patients. That is what a survey of doctors by the Medical Society of the State of New York reveals.
The survey found that of the 1,200 physicians surveyed:
- 90% said they have had to change the way they treat patients based on restrictions from an insurance company.
- 92% said insurance company incentives and disincentives regarding treatment protocols “may not be in the best interest of the patients.”
- 87% said that they sometimes feel they are pressured to prescribe a course of treatment based on cost rather than on what may be best for the patient.
- 78% said that an insurance carrier has restricted their ability to refer patients to the physicians they believed would best treat their patients’ needs.
- 62% are either somewhat concerned or very concerned (37% and 25% respectively) that they may be cut out of an insurance network if they do not follow the policies of the insurance companies.
Michael Rosenberg, MD, President of the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY), said, “The survey was conducted as a result of the medical society receiving numerous complaints from member physicians that insurance carriers were preventing them from giving their patients the most appropriate treatment for their patients’ particular health care needs. MSSNY, therefore, decided to poll all NYS physicians in all specialties to find out if the complaints were limited to just a segment of the medical profession or if they were representative of doctors in all specialties across the state.”
Clearly the problem is widespread. Insurance company bureaucracies are interfering with what doctors believe is in the best interest of their patients.
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