Letter to UHC Corporate Medical Director
August 10, 1999
Lee N. Newcomer, MD
Chief Medical Officer
United HealthCare
P.O. Box 1459
Minneapolis, MN 55440-1459
Dear Lee:
Attached is a letter on behalf of over 115,000 physician-members of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP-ASIM) to Anthony J. Kazlauskas, MD, Senior Medical Director for United HealthCare of New England. Our letter urges United HealthCare of New England to terminate the planned launch of a mandatory hospitalist program for Medicare beneficiaries.
ACP-ASIM has long-standing policy against the use of mandatory hospitalist programs because such programs may damage the primary care physician-patient relationship and may be disruptive to the continuity of patient care. ACP-ASIM supports hospitalist programs on a voluntary basis only. Patients must have the opportunity to discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of hospitalist programs with their primary care physicians prior to enrolling in such a program.
Indeed, even the National Association of Inpatient Physicians (NAIP), the organization that represents hospitalists nationwide, does not support mandatory hospitalist programs.
ACP-ASIM urges United HealthCare to prohibit its health plans from launching mandatory hospitalist programs.
Sincerely,
Alan R. Nelson, MD, FACP
Associate Executive Vice President
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Thomas A Bledsoe, MD FACP
ACP Governor for Rhode Island
Donna Goodnow
ACP Rhode Island Chapter
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