Zerbe says Congress should direct the IRS to hold HMOs to the same standard.
Nonprofit hospitals are typically set up as 501c3 public charities and HMOs as 501c4 charities.
We saw that happen in the 1990s: HMOs controlled health care costs, employees got raises.
The HMOs, for their part, won't be thrilled with paying for expensive new tests.
That changed rapidly, at least in states that allowed it, once HMOs entered the market.
Many of the early HMOs, like Humana, shed their physical assets like hospitals decades ago.
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But why bash the HMOs when they are, in this case, being very transparent.
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More broadly, the big HMOs that AHIP represents have a business model that requires health inflation.
HMOs will occasionally direct patients to self-anointed dermatologists who actually trained in other fields.
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There are still a huge percentage of people in Florida that are in HMOs.
HMOs after a nervous breakdown leaves him with a compulsion to tell the truth.
Unlike HMOs, the Medicare ACOs let patients see a range of doctors if they wish.
Miller claims that 97% of his members reenrolled in 2002, compared with 88% to 92% for HMOs.
The judge ruled that federal antikickback statutes don't apply to HMOs, so Chase hadn't committed a crime.
It was a fragile situation and the HMOs looked like they had succeeded in blocking the bill.
Other big HMOs like Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealth have mostly escaped scrutiny and their stock has held.
Other surveys have yielded less alarming figures, and even among profit-making HMOs, there is a wide range.
HMOs point to the dangers of patients treating themselves and of doctors coming under pressure to over-prescribe.
HMOs have the bargaining power to squeeze discounts from their suppliers, whether hospitals, drug firms or doctors.
But then there are Canada, much of Europe, our very own Department of Veterans Affairs and our HMOs.
That means I care about doctors and other medical professionals, hospitals, Medicare, HMOs, and of course, health reform.
There are subsectors like tobacco and HMOs that remain cheap because of residual fears of litigation and legislation.
The airline industry is one that makes HMOs look the epitome of customer friendliness and tender, loving care.
The bills are virtually identical except when it comes to the ability of patients to sue their HMOs.
The move by HHS shows that politics around bashing HMOs have not changed since the health reform debate.
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But HMOs are coming under attack from so many directions that they can no longer shrug it off.
If the two ideas are combined, private HMOs may only be able to offer coverage for government-greenlit procedures.
The result: HMOs largely disappeared and little has been done to control the long-term growth of medical expenses.
In particular, they object to cuts in spending for private HMOs and other health plans that serve Medicare patients.
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