title: The Supreme Court's pre-emptive strike against patients' rights to sue their HMOs.
abstract: Managed care's influence on health care is enormous. Social workers in medical and mental health settings spend increasing amounts of time dealing with client issues that result from managed care decisions. We first provide a brief overview on the impact of managed care decisions on access to quality and appropriate medical care. Next, we present the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Aetna Health Inc. vs. Davila (2004) and its impact on consumers' access to appropriate health care. Finally, we discuss the implications of this case for social work practice.
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Social Work, 1207 W. Oregon, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. kopels@uiuc.edu
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kopels
authors.forename: Tonya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Manselle
mesh_terms: D035881:Compensation and Redress / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019461:Employee Retirement Income Security Act / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D016365:Liability, Legal; D028701:Patient Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D035521:Supreme Court Decisions; D014481:United States