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Medical / Legal Q&A:
NEW DOCTORS’
“BILL OF RIGHTS”
by Dan Groszkruger, JD, MPH
Consulting Editor
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Q:
I just heard about a new “Doctors’ Bill of Rights” that went into effect on January 1, 2003.
What will the new law mean for me and my practice?
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A:
Physicians increasingly are caught in contractual disputes with health plans. If the dispute leads
to termination of the contract, patients will be affected when the physician’s name is dropped
from the panel. Patients suffer when they are forced to switch doctors, often with inadequate
advance warning and through no fault of their own. The intent of the new State law is to prevent
disputes during the contract period.
The new law [AB 2907, Ch. 925, Cohn]: (1) prohibits unfair contract language, (2) voids any
contracts containing this prohibited language, and (3) makes the Department of Managed Health
Care and the Department of Insurance responsible for enforcement.
The new law prohibits contract language that:
- Allows unilateral changes by health plans to significant terms of a contract
- Forces physicians to accept additional patients beyond the agreed number
- Requires physicians to adhere to yet unknown QI or UR changes
- Requires physicians to waive their rights under California’s managed care laws
- Requires physicians to provide unlimited confidential patient data to health plans
While this new law is intended to give physicians more “clout” at the bargaining table, its likely
effects are unknown. It still appears that many physicians do not actively negotiate or know the
language of their contracts. The new law can only provide more “clout” to a physician who has
taken care to read and understand his contract and to object to any now-prohibited language.
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