Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Insurance Carriers”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 559 records · Page 31Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Quality and Delta Dental Plan of Massachusetts.

This article on Delta Dental Plan of Massachusetts's total quality management program is the winner of the Coopers & Lybrand/Sloan Management Review Quality Award. Delta Dental Plan's enviable TQM program emphasizes now-standard elements such as teamwork and employee involvement and more cutting-edge elements such as service guarantees. Here's how it's done.

Awards and Prizes↗
PubMed1992

Radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies (for the radiology administrator).

Cheaper, faster, safer, these are not the attributes of 1993 automobiles, but criteria for new diagnostic tests in medicine. To achieve these characteristics, medicine is increasingly looking to biotechnology for answers. And the mother of all biotechnology is monoclonal antibody research. In past issues, Administrative Radiology published articles discussing the role of biotechnology in the development of radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine. In this issue, Richard Wahl, M.D., reviews, in plain talk, the current status and prospects for diagnostic imaging with radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies. Are there any such procedures of value today? Are there any that are FDA approved? Will there ever be such agents that are either useful or approved? If so, will any insurance carrier pay for them? For the answers to these and other "hot" questions, the reader is encouraged to continue on and read this month's Technology Review section.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1993

Statutory caps: an involuntary contribution to the medical malpractice insurance crisis or a reasonable mechanism for obtaining affordable health care?

A medical malpractice insurance crisis occurred in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s evidenced by escalating malpractice insurance rates and increasing numbers of malpractice claims. Insurance companies maintained that the increase in insurance rates was necessary because of the sharp rise in the number of malpractice lawsuits, astronomical damage awards, and ineffective mechanisms to prevent and to eliminate nonmeritorious claims. Physicians responded by forming their own insurance companies, cancelling high-risk procedures, and orchestrating intensive legislative lobbying for tort reform. Insurance companies, physicians, and the legislature collaborated efforts to resolve this medical malpractice crisis. A national debate erupted regarding the proper way to address the medical malpractice insurance crisis. Insurance companies and physicians pressured state legislatures to reform liability laws that, in their opinion, permitted recovery of excessive damage awards by plaintiffs. Consumer groups and lawyers suggested tighter regulation of the insurance industry. State legislatures, in an attempt to remedy the perception that injured plaintiffs were overcompensated for their injuries, enacted "tort reform legislation," which included statutory caps on damages recoverable in medical malpractice actions. As a result of the extensive lobbying effort by physicians and insurance companies, twenty-seven states enacted statutes limiting recovery of damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Lawyers responded by challenging state malpractice legislation on constitutional grounds, alleging violations of federal and state equal protection and due process clauses and the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. Opponents of the cap also asserted violations of state constitution provisions such as the "open courts" provision or the "special legislation" clause. To date, the state courts have held that statutory caps are unconstitutional. Statutory caps and other tort reform measures are extremely important in light of proposed health care legislation entitled the Health Care Liability Reform and Quality of Care Improvement Act of 1992 [the "Health Care Bill"]. This Comment critically examines the constitutionality of statutory caps on damages in medical malpractice actions. It focuses on the public policy behind the caps and the constitutional issues embodied in limiting an individual's recovery. It also analyzes the impact of the Health Care Bill on statutory caps. Part I outlines the medical malpractice insurance crisis, describes the statutory reforms and discusses the public policy behind tort reform. Part II examines the constitutionality of statutory caps and summarizes the arguments of the proponents and the opponents of these caps. Part III discusses the Health Care Bill and its impact on medical malpractice legislation with respect to statutory caps. This Comment concludes that a compromise must be reached that addresses both the growing health care insurance crisis and the protection of individual rights. The Health Care Liability Reform and Quality of Care Improvement Act of 1992 attempts to achieve this compromise.

Civil Rights↗
PubMed1992

Helping consumers to select an appropriate long-term care insurance policy.

Consumers who purchase long term care insurance policies can get good value for their money but there are several residual risks. Advisers have an important responsibility to make sure that their clients fully understand these risks. We recommend that consumers who are appropriate candidates for long term care insurance take into account the following guidelines: Make sure that a policy is bought from a well-known, financially secure company that has an A.M. Best Company rating of A or A+ or at least an A rating from Standard & Poor's. Avoid companies that have a history of consumer complaints, post-claims underwriting, high agent commissions, high lapse rates, or abuses in the Medigap market. Buy a policy with level premiums but understand that in the absence of explicit rate guarantees, premiums may be increased in the future. Seek policies that are guaranteed renewable, explicitly ensure fair access to policy upgrades, provide protection in case of late premium payments, and guarantee protection from potential changes in government benefits.

Consumer Advocacy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Information technology enters the doctor's office: Part I--Six design and implementation lessons.

Because of a trend toward increased cost escalation outside of the hospital, in the ambulatory care setting, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company initiated an Ambulatory Utilization Review ("AUR") program in 1986. This is an overview of the lessons learned since that time. Some of what was learned was simply--or not so simply--"how to," the subject of this first article in a two-part series. Once this deceptively difficult technology was understood, there were two additional categories of lessons to learn: the extent of expected program results and some unexpected results. This second set of lessons is reviewed in Part II of the article.

Ambulatory Care↗