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About this site
HARP is a resource for patients, doctors, and attorneys seeking to
establish the liability of HMOs, Managed Health Care Organizations,
and Nursing Facilities for the consequences of their decisions.
We are concerned that in the headlong rush to "Efficient"
Medical care, the organizations involved are losing sight
of the "Quality" of the care they provide.
As more and more "Incentives" to cut back on medical care
are put in place by the new class of medical entrepreneurs,
the patient often suffers. We feel that Counter-incentives
must be applied, and they must be financial. The only such
Counter-incentives available under our system are lawsuits
for damages caused by excessive cost-cutting measures.
However, many obstacles protect corporate providers from
being held responsible for their acts.
ERISA drastically
limits the remedies available to injured workers, as well
as preempting State regulations designed to control the
more egregious problems.
Rigged Mandatory
Arbitration gives injured patients the
illusion of justice. Strict application of state
Tort laws holds
doctors responsible for actions forced on them by Managed Care
Organizations, which themselves escape liability.
In an attempt to alleviate some of the obstacles to just resolution
of patient suits, we have developed a
Political Agenda which we will attempt to see enacted.
We have collected here some aids for the plaintiff and
his attorney attempting to surmount these barriers.
We have
links to pertinent sections of the
Federal and California Codes, relevant
Cases, other helpful sites,
and musings on theories of liability.
We also support a
listserver where questions
and ideas can be posted and discussed. But first you must
Join as described Here.
You will find many gaps here, and perhaps even some errors.
Your ideas, suggestions, comments, criticisms, and assistance
are earnestly solicited!
Obviously if you have a specific legal problem, you should consult a
lawyer
knowledgable in the field. These pages are educational. They are not
designed as, and should not be used as a substitute for, expert legal
advice.
We plan to set up a Legal Aid Society for patients
injured by their HMO. If you would like to make a tax-deductible
contribution to the War Chest,
either now or in your will, you will need to know
that our Tax ID number is 23-7406164, and our address is:
HARP
552 12th St.
Santa Monica, CA
90402-2908
Thank you! If you would like a confirmation
letter, please ask us when you send your contribution.
Note: There is another healthcare site with "HARP" in its name,
entirely unrelated to this one. If you were
searching for "Healthcare Accounts-Receivable Processing", you
can find it at
www.quadax.com/harp
Theories of Organization Liability
Structural Obstacles to a Trial on the Merits
Sources of the Law
Some State HMO Laws
Pennsylvania Health & Safety Code
Texas Medical Practice Act, Excerpts.
Health Hippo
Your rights when your health plan changes - for any reason
Some notes on "subrogation"
Fighting a denial
- In General
- ERISA HMOs
- Medicare and MedicAid
- Social Security Disability Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- Nursing Homes
Consumer Resources
- HealthCare.gov, individualized advice on public and private health insurance plans and clinics.
- Low Cost and Free Medical Clinics
- State Insurance Commissioners
- State High Risk Health Insurance Pools
- Finding Health Insurance Coverage in your State
- Organizations that Help Medicare Insureds in Your State
- Organizations & Hot-Lines (Mainly California)
- Calif. Dept. of Health Care Services (Medi-Cal)
- Attorneys
- Legal Document Assistant (AZ & CA) (for inexpensive Living Wills, and Health Care and General Durable Powers of Attorney)
- Small Claims Courts, by State
- Consumer Advocates (Non-attorney)
- Claims Assistance Professionals
- Legal Aid & Pro Bono Lists
- Doctor Lookup
- Drug company payments to Doctors
- Compare Hospitals
- Compare Medical Costs
- citehealth.com, Reports on specific hospitals, nursing homes, etc.(I found it void of information)
- Nursing Home Sites
- Non-medical in-home assistance and assisted living facilities
- Other Aging related sites
- Free Medical Flights, Google search, for State "Angel Flight" organizations
- Finding a Clinical Trial
- National Guideline Clearinghouse
- Private Medical Research for Patients
- FTCR's California Patient's Guide
- Avoiding Hospital Mistakes
- Helpguide for mental health and aging
- Your Legislators
- Federal Health-Care related Form Downloads
- RxWiki
- Consumer Reports Best Buy Drug Site
- Calif. Medicare Maximum Drug Prices
- Free Drug programs for low income patients
- $4 Generic Drug Programs (as of 2/2011)
These 4 pharmacies all have the same policies for generics - open to all, no annual fee
30 day supply- $4, 90 day supply- $10
Kroger, Target, Walmart, Sam's Club
- Drug Price Comparisons for American on-line pharmacies
- PharmacyChecker.com, searches US, Canadian, and international sites
- List of Rogue On-Line Pharmacies
- Get prescriptions filled cheap in Canada.
- Big Pharma tries to raise suspicions about Canadian Drugs: www.buysafedrugs.info
- Eyeglasses at (very) low prices:
- Medical Care Abroad -
Price Comparisons (pdf file)
NOTE: HARP merely lists these organizations for your convenience. We have not investigated any of them. Be sure to do your own due diligence before committing to anything.
- Avoiding Fraud
- When all else fails, Laugh!
Fired Doctors Fight Back
Recent and Pending Legislation
- Federal
- California
- New Jersey
- Texas
- sb386, Suing HMOs, SB386
- sb1468, Doctors' negotiation groups
- Washington
- SB 6199,
eff. 7/1/2001 (Thanks to Gary Preble for these links)
- While the Act was codified in several different places, it would appear that the meat of it is found at the following:
Relevant articles from elsewhere
- The True Cost of Healthcare, by David Belk MD
- An American Doctor's Experience in the Canadian Health System by Charles Phillips MD FACP
- Conflicts and Tensions of Complaint Managers, a dissertation by Clare Xanthos
- Fear & Loathing in the Kingdom of the Ombudswoman by Arlan Cohen MD JD
Kaiser OIA Reports
- Accountability and Fraud in Arbitration Proceedings by Michael R. Brown
- A Harvard Law Professor Blows the Whistle on Mandatory Pre-Dispute Arbitration, Senate Judiciary Committee, 7/23/2008
- The Manipulation of HMO Medical Testing by Charles Phillips MD FACP
- An HMO explains its techniques for decreasing utilization.
Kaiser purposely makes it hard to see doctors, L.A.Times, 9/1/2001
Kaiser purposely prolongs ER Wait Times to drive patients away, appellate decision posted 12/20/2007
- Lyme Disease: Two Standards of Care, by Lorraine Johnson
- Saving state law bad-faith claims from preemption by Donald T. Bogan, 4/2003
- Criminal Prosecution for HMO Treatment Denials by Prof. John Humbach
- Sharon Arkin's Congressional Testimony, 4/24/2001
- Promoting Accountable Managed Health Care: The Potential Role for Consumer Voice by Marc Rodwin
- Standards of Care and Standard Form Contracts: Distinguishing Patient Rights and Consumer Rights in Managed Care by Wendy Mariner
- The Judicial Reinterpretation of ERISA by Wayne Blackmon
- HMOs-Licensed to Kill a serial book, by Charles Phillips M.D.
- Some notes from Inside Kaiser's Emergency Room, by Charles Phillips M.D.
- Managed Care Ethics by Linda Peeno M.D.
- The second coming of managed care by Linda Peeno M.D.
- ERISA is a failure of the Democratic Process. by Prof. Rand Rosenblatt
- Rep. Ganske's letter to Congress.
- The Accelerating Marketization of the UK’s National Health Service, by Allyson Pollock, from MM 10/2004
- Elderly HMO patients are twice as likely to have health decline as fee-for-service patients from JAMA.
- HMO patients are twice as likely to die in-hospital from an acute myocardial infarct as fee-for-service patients
American Heart Assoc. Meeting, Nov. 1997
- For-Profit HMOs are worse than Non-Profits, from JAMA,
from NEJM
- For-Profit Nursing Homes 46.5% worse than Non-Profits,
Amer. Jnl. of Public Health, Sept., 2001
- 480,000 Californians denied Health by HMOs in 1996, from Univ. of Calif. at Berkeley
- 87% of doctors report HMO care denials from Kaiser Family Foundation Study
- Compromising your Drug of Choice How HMOs are dictating your next prescription
by Mark Green, NYC Public Advocate.
- The Truth about the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell
- HMO Negligence is Hard to Fight by Jane Bryant Quinn.
- Op Ed article on ERISA by Ron Hoffman and Mark Hiepler.
- HMO Executive Salaries
- Piercing the Armor: Approaches to Managed Care Liability
by Thomas W. Williamson, Jr. and Joshua Silverman
- Frontline's HMO Documentary (April 14, 1998)
- L.A.Times Series on Workers Comp Anti-Fraud Campaign:
- HMOs deny Appropriate Care from NEJM 11/16/2000
- Head of major financial group advises seniors to get out of medicare HMOs.
- HMO Experts avoid HMOs for themselves
- Morphine Hotel by Chuck Phillips
- Banner Week for Kaiser Negligence, Corruption, and Fraud
- New tools make it easier to find prices for medical procedures, L.A.Times
Send a message to
Dialog, our HMO Listserver.
(be sure to Join first)
- Click Here To Join the Dialog
Listserver.
- Click Here To Quit the Dialog
Listserver.
- To get the Digest, go to your control panel once you've subscribed
Minimal graphics are used on these pages
to maximize accessibility
to screen readers used by the visually impaired,
as well as to minimize load time for everyone.
Most of this site is continuously under construction.
We welcome all suggestions and comments, whether substantive or technical.
No information is collected about users of this site. No cookies are stored.
Email addresses of list-members are not made available to 3d parties in any way.
The site is funded by private individuals, and accepts no advertising or payment for any listing, except those ads placed by Google on the Site Search page. HARP has no control over and does not endorse those ads.
These pages are up-dated piecemeal from time to time. A "last update" notice does not mean that everything on the site is current as of that date.
This page was last updated on 4 Apr., 2011
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information
Awards
California Nurses Association
Mishpat-Net Award
Britannica Internet Guide Award
This site is a member of WebRing.
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