As you may know, my office took a stance
against managed care companies about five years ago. At that time, we decided we
could not provide quality care to our patients under the often ridiculous
constraints of the HMO referral system. We terminated our HMO contracts and have
operated ?HMO Free? from that day until now.
The health care insurance
environment has continued to evolve since that time. As a result of physician
and patient opposition, and sometimes as a result of legislation, many of the
restrictive referral policies to which I objected when I burned my HMO contracts
have changed.
Recently, my office manager and I undertook a thorough
review of insurance plans in our area. After careful negotiation, we have agreed
to participate in several managed care plans. We have been assured in each
instance that our patients will have direct access to the dermatological care
they need and that our office will not be restricted in providing medically
necessary services in a timely manner.
Please advise your office staff
that we now participate with the following insurance
plans:
Alliance/Mamsi PPO only AmeriChoice (formerly United HealthCare
Medicaid) Carefirst BlueCross BlueShield PPO, BlueChoice HMO, Federal
Employee Plan, Point of Service Champus PPO only Cigna PPO/HMO Coventry
PPO/HMO Fidelity PPO MailHandlers PPO Medicare Medicaid Private
Health Care Systems (PHCS) PPO
As always, we will strive to make
ourselves available to your patients regardless of insurance coverage. We hope,
though, that these changes will prove
beneficial.
