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Full-Text Articles in Law
Increasing Consumer Power In The Grievance And Appeal Process For Medicare Hmo Enrollees, Kenneth J. Pippin
Increasing Consumer Power In The Grievance And Appeal Process For Medicare Hmo Enrollees, Kenneth J. Pippin
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Federal law requires that Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) provide Medicare beneficiaries with specific grievance and appeal rights for challenging adverse decisions of these organizations. The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is charged with enforcing these regulations. Currently, however, HCFA contracts with HMOs, allowing them to enroll Medicare beneficiaries despite the fact that many of the statutory and regulatory requirements are ignored by the Medicare HMOs. This is problematic because the elderly Medicare population may not be able to independently and adequately challenge the HMO's denial of care or reimbursement. Because HCFA has been reluctant and …
Clearing The Way For An Effective Federal-State Partnership In Health Reform, Eleanor D. Kinney
Clearing The Way For An Effective Federal-State Partnership In Health Reform, Eleanor D. Kinney
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
At century's end, states have assumed a very different role in the design, implementation, and operation of health service programs than they did twenty-five years ago. In the current volatile political atmosphere particularly at the federal level, states have taken up the mantle of healthcare reform in the final years of the 1990s. Yet there remain problems and difficulties with the current federal-state relationship in health reform. The critical question is whether states can successfully accomplish genuine reform given its politically charged, complex and costly nature. This question takes on particular significance for the most important reform-expanding coverage to the …
Managed Care Regulation: Can We Learn From Others? The Chilean Experience, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost
Managed Care Regulation: Can We Learn From Others? The Chilean Experience, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Because the United States relies on private insurance for financing health care to a much greater degree than do other nations, and because managed care as a form of private insurance is further developed in the United States than elsewhere, it is arguable that we have little to learn from other nations about managed care regulation. This Article tests this hypothesis with respect to Chile, a country where private insurance is widespread and managed care is emerging. It concludes that by studying the experience of other nations we might gain a larger perspective on the context of our concerns in …
Democratizing Hmo Regulation To Enforce The "Rule Of Rescue", Kent G. Rutter
Democratizing Hmo Regulation To Enforce The "Rule Of Rescue", Kent G. Rutter
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Despite heightened public concern about HMOs, misguided regulatory measures have not guaranteed HMO patients access to the treatment options many consider vital. This Note recommends four changes to the current regulatory system that would preserve HMOs' ability to control health care costs while allowing patients and doctors, rather than lawmakers or HMO administrators, to set health care priorities.
Regulating Viatical Settlements: Is The Invisible Hand Picking The Pockets Of The Terminally Ill?, Russell J. Herron
Regulating Viatical Settlements: Is The Invisible Hand Picking The Pockets Of The Terminally Ill?, Russell J. Herron
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The newly emerging viatical settlement industry has attracted considerable attention from both insurance regulators and advocates for the terminally ill. In a viatical settlement, a terminally ill person names a viatical settlement company as beneficiary under his life insurance policy in exchange for an immediate lump-sum cash payment of less than face value of the policy. To date, viatical settlement payments to people with AIDS (PWAs) have been disturbingly low as a percentage of the face value of PWA policies. This Note examines the few enacted viatical settlement regulations and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' model regulations as they …