Government
Health plans should shorten doctors' phone wait times, AMA says
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 5, 2004
Physicians say they shouldn't have to wait on the phone for more than five minutes when they call a managed care organization's physician contact phone number listed for denied care appeals. Doctors at the AMA Annual Meeting in June voted to encourage Congress to write legislation that would mandate that managed care companies staff their phone lines so that doctors wouldn't have to wait any longer than that. Doctors said wait times are often unreasonable, hurting patients and harming physicians' ability to be patient advocates.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/07/05/gvbf0705.htm.
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