Survey says insurance hinders docs

A new survey of New York physicians indicates that health insurance companies often dictate how doctors treat their patients.
Ninety percent of the 1,200 physicians surveyed by the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) said they have had to alter their treatment of patients based on health insurer restrictions. Ninety-two percent of those surveyed said the insurance company mandates “may not be in the best interest of the patients.”
Dr. Michael Rosenberg, President of the MSSNY, explained in a statement that his organization conducted the survey after “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.”
The MSSNY poll included physicians in all specialties in an effort to determine if the complaints were limited to a particular medical discipline. In fact, 93 percent of doctors across all medical specialties said insurance providers had forced them to change prescriptions medications; 87 percent said they are pressured to base their treatment on cost rather than on effectiveness; and 78 percent said a provider had interfered with their referral of a patient to another doctor.
Ninety-five percent of survey participants said medication decisions are best made by a doctor rather than a health insurance provider, but 62 percent of respondents expressed concern that they would be cut out of an insurance network if they do not kowtow to carriers.
Perhaps the most telling statistic is the 91 percent of surveyed doctors who favor “enforceable legislation” to control and limit the treatment restrictions that health care providers impose on doctors.
According to the Managed Care component of MSSNY’s Legislative program, an overwhelming majority of New York State’s managed care enrollees are insured by just seven health plans, forcing physicians into health carrier contracts that impose one-sided terms. The program contains MSSNY’s explicit view that “fundamental reform is needed to counter the immense power” wielded by health insurers at the expense of patients.