David Weldon: “The bill requires that all managed care entities set up a grievance committee, and it should be, it can be made up of…”

“The bill requires that all managed care entities set up a grievance committee, and it should be, it can be made up of people, doctors that are in the plan, administrators that are in the plan, but it also calls for patients to be enrolled or patients in the grievance committee and, as well, people who are outside the plan. And you know, I have an aunt and uncle up in New York who have been in a managed care plan all their adult life. They love it, they think it is wonderful. It is a well-run plan, the best that I can determine. So when you say there are good managed care plans, there are. But I will tell you that some of the good managed care plans are being squeezed by the unscrupulous managed care plans who will frequently come into a community, low-ball prices, sign people up, put pressure on those good plans to reduce their prices or they will go out of business. And how do they do that? Well, how do those unscrupulous plans do that? Well, they deny services, is typically what they do. They deny access to specialists. And might I also add, I am a primary care provider. I still see patients about once a month, and I used to refer. When I was practicing medicine, I used to refer probably, maybe 10 times a day I would refer somebody do a specialist. But I saw 30 to 40 people a day, and I prided myself in taking care of my patients and not referring them all out to specialists.”