Has Your HMO Drugs Been Switched?

New York HMO Health Care malpractice

Has your managed care plan ever switched or denied coverage of your medications?

Has this happened to you ? Your hospital doctor tells or writes you the name of the correct medication you should take to help your condition. Then your HMO doctor switches to a similar type or generic version of the same type or idea of medication. You suffer from more problems allergy or severe adverse problems or your condition gets worse. Drug switching can be performed by HMO doctors. Past cases lawsuits have been settled against the HMO, thy could be marketing and playing a persuasive role in the prescription or dosage market.

The negative of HMO plans is that they have a slight reputation of putting profits in front of patients. If you suspect severe pain was caused by not getting the right drugs or experienced any negligent HMO behavior. Contact our law offices today to get advised on your legal options.

As in this case below:

Another public-spirited drug giant, Merck, was forced to pay a settlement of $1.9 million to 17 states in 1995 for drug-switching practices involving its Medco subsidiary. Medco pharmacists, who had given excessively favorable treatment to Merck products, were thereafter required to reveal their Merck connection to their customers.

More than half of those contacted in a recent study strongly opposed the practice of switching prescriptions for lower-cost alternatives. Eighty-five percent supported some form of governmental intervention to prevent mandatory substitution of narrow therapeutic index (NTI) drugs without approval from a doctor or patient. They were somewhat less opposed to generic substitution in general.

Nearly one in five respondents believed they had experienced a medical problem when a drug was switched. The study also found that Americans are unaware that some health plans practice drug switching that in some cases doesn't require the consent of patient or doctor.

The study was conducted for the Health Alliance for NTI Patient Safety, which includes, among other groups, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the National Stroke Association.

Hung Jury in NYC On Physician-Patient Relations
Fewer than half–45 percent–of New York City primary care physicians surveyed by Global Strategy Group said they felt that managed care has harmed doctor-patient relationships.

Eleven percent of the 200 respondents felt that relationsips with patients had improved under managed care.

Commissioned by the New York Doctors MSO (management services organization), the survey asked about professional issues, too. Fifty-one percent said managed care had impaired their ability to exercise professional judgment, and 47 percent expected the problem to get worse. Ten percent experienced improvement.

FACT: The cost of medical malpractice liability premiums amount to less than one percent of total health care costs.

The Consumer Federation of America reports that medical malpractice premiums comprise only 0.59 percent of national health care costs - so even eliminating medical liability altogether would do little to reduce health care costs. Malpractice Suits Not Driving Medical Costs Up, Says Group, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 5, 1999, at E3.

Read an actual lawsuit settlement on New York HMO malpractice care