California rule gives HMO patients timely health care access | McClatchy

California rule gives HMO patients timely health care access | McClatchy
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The state's so-called timely access rules went into effect over the weekend after an eight-year delay during which doctors, health plans and consumer groups quibbled over details.
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Under the new rules, HMO physicians must see a patient who requests an appointment within 10 days. Specialists have 15 days. Urgent-care patients must be seen within 48 hours.

Telephone triage and screening services must be available 24 hours a day with a call back from a medical provider within 30 minutes. The new rules require that customers spend no more than 10 minutes on hold before they speak to an HMO customer-service representative.

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Today, the average wait to see a general practitioner for a physical is 20 days in some of the state's large cities, according to a report last year by the market research firm Merritt Hawkins and Associates. In Los Angeles, the usual wait was 59 days.

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