USA: HMOs Are "In It For The Money, Not Patient Care"

13 October 1996

America's sick and the doctors who treat them have not yet realized that the main goal of health maintenance organizations is not to provide the best care for patients, but rather "how much they can make by cutting back on medical treatment," according to Robert Weinmann, president of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists speaking at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Pain Management.

Economic Credentials Insurance companies have developed a "business device called economic credentials in order to prevent doctors from providing care to patients, especially those who are the sickest and most needy," he added. Under this "economic credentialing," doctors who can best keep their treatment expenses to a minimum by treating the greatest number of patients with the lowest amount of care are being retained by the HMOs. "Doctors who shun assembly-line medicine and provide patients with individual care are being fired by HMOs," he added.

Dr Weinmann told academy members attending the meeting, the theme of which this year was Breaking the Cycle of Pain and Suffering, that their patients who are suffering pain may soon be excluded from HMOs. While a broken leg is easy to document, a migraine is not, he explained. Insurance companies, he suggested, are now trying to determine how much physical pain their subscribers can be left to suffer before HMOs begin paying for their treatment.

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