According to a survey released by the Medical Society of the State of New York, physicians in New York say health insurer rules often force them to change how they treat their patients.
According to the survey, these alterations have boosted insurer profits at the expense of best health practices and the patient's health.
The survey, based on responses from more than 1,200 New York physicians, is carried in the September issue of (italics) News of New York, (end italics) the medical society's monthly publication.
Ninety percent of the physicians surveyed said they have had to change the way they treat patients based on restrictions from an insurance company, and 92 percent said insurance company incentives and disincentives regarding treatment protocols "may not be in the best interest of the patients."
The physicians' largest complaint (93 percent) is when health insurers require them to change prescription medications. More than three-fourths (78 percent) said an insurance carrier has restricted their ability to refer patients to the physicians they believed would best treat their patients' needs.
A majority (87 percent) of physicians said they sometimes feel they are pressured to prescribe a course of treatment based on cost rather than on what may be best for the patient. More than half (62 percent) of the physicians surveyed are either somewhat concerned or very concerned (37 percent and 25 percent, respectively) that they may be cut out of an insurance network if they do not follow the policies requested by insurance companies.
Ninety-five percent of physicians agreed that "decisions on what medications are right for a patient should be made by the patient's own doctor and not by the health plan or the insurance carrier."
As a result, 91 percent of the doctors surveyed said there should be enforceable legislation to regulate the restrictions that insurance carriers put on physicians in regard to treatment modalities they prescribe for patients.
"The survey was conducted as a result of the medical society receiving numerous complaints from member physicians that insurance carriers were preventing them from giving their patients the most appropriate treatment for their patients' particular health care needs," said Michael Rosenberg, MD, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York. "MSSNY, therefore, decided to conduct a survey of all NYS physicians in all specialties to find out if the complaints were limited to a vociferous segment of the medical profession or if they were representative of doctors in all specialties across the state."