PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 14, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Emerita Gueson is a physician who has witnessed firsthand how HMOs refuse crucial medical care to patients. In her new book, Survival Guide for HMO Patients (now available through AuthorHouse), she outlines how the public can protect itself from companies who think the bottom line is more important than people's lives.
Gueson, an obstetrician, highlights numerous ways HMOs have shortchanged patients and doctors. She begins with a helpful breakdown of the history of HMOs and their structure. Included are detailed descriptions of everything from how HMOs set policies to how Congress could change the law to make managed care organizations more accountable. She exposes the dangerous HMO practice of denying necessary care, lab tests, referrals and hospital admissions while forcing the same behavior on primary care physicians under threat of termination of their HMO contracts. Details can be found at Gueson v. Huber, USHealthcare, et al. As a tribute to the thousands who have paid dearly for these actions, Gueson includes a list of victims who have suffered the consequences of what she calls profit motivated insufficient medical treatment through the courtesy of HMOs.
Shocking examples of greed and incompetence are illustrated. Some doctors willfully accept financial incentives from HMOs and do not disclose them to patients, Gueson claims. She exposes how these huge corporations are protected from federal regulations, such as antitrust laws. Health care costs continue to escalate with no solution in sight, Gueson writes, adding that "Congress needs to amend the HMO Act of 1973 and McCarran-Ferguson Law of 1945, now!" Gueson dissects the shameful actions of our most trusted profession.
"Are we, as physicians, going to let the government, the HMOs, politicians and the whole insurance industry reduce us to serfs and lead us down the primrose path of our own destruction?" Gueson writes. "Or, are we going to stand up and light out torches and eliminate the greed, ignorance and confusion of the dark underbelly of the present healthcare system?"
Survival Guide for HMO Patients is an informative ally along the uncertain path of managed health care.
Gueson is on staff at Holy Redeemer and Nazareth hospitals in Philadelphia. She served on the board of Physicians Who Care, a national organization of more than 4,000 doctors who support patients' rights. Survival Guide for HMO Patients won a Merit Award in the Writer's Digest book contest. Gueson has also written Doctors Under Fire, Scales of Justice and Do HMOs Cut Costs . . . and Lives?
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