title: Patients' rights after health care reform: who decides what is medically necessary?
abstract: President Clinton's Health Security Act entitles individuals not to unlimited health care, but to a package of defined insurance benefits with specific exclusions and limitations. Like virtually all reform proposals, it would limit covered benefits to services that are medically necessary. If health reform is to control costs, not all medically necessary care can be covered. In the absence of a generally accepted definition of medical necessity, many services will not be guaranteed to all patients unless they are explicitly covered in the federal legislation or regulations. Without a federal definition of medical necessity or regulations listing covered services, health insurance plans will retain the primary authority to decide what is medically necessary for their patient subscribers.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Boston University, MA 02118-2394.
authors.forename: W K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Mariner
mesh_terms: D003363:Cost Control; D035082:Federal Government; D033161:Government Regulation; D017048:Health Care Costs; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007342:Insurance Benefits; D007354:Insurance, Major Medical / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D037141:Mandatory Programs; D010344:Patient Advocacy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D036302:Therapeutic Human Experimentation; D014481:United States