Nevadans to monitor suit

Friday, May 26, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

Nevada physicians and medical centers aren't involved in the California litigation against health maintenance organizations.

Larry Matheis, executive director of the Nevada State Medical Association, said his organization will monitor the California Medical Association's lawsuit to see if there is any relevance to Nevada.

PacifiCare, which is being sued in California, has some 62,000 Nevada members.

The Nevada Legislature strengthened the law governing the regulation of HMOs last year. The Legislature prohibited the use of coercive means to interfere with relationships between doctors and their patients. And a law signed last year requires the timely payment of claims.

The Patient Protection Act, sponsored by Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Nev., was a pre-emptive measure, Matheis said, making it illegal to provide inappropriate incentives to physicians to control doctor-patient relationships that benefit the insurer. In the California suit, the HMOs are accused of making higher payments to doctors to make medical decisions that benefited the insurers.

archive