Remember Managed Care? It's Quietly Coming Back
Under pressure to squeeze out costs, some of the U.S.'s biggest health insurers are quietly erecting more hurdles for patients seeking medical care.</br></br>The companies are in many cases reaching back to the 1990s and boosting the use of techniques that antagonized patients and doctors alike.</br></br>Today's approaches are tweaked, but may feel familiar to many: Insurers are rolling out plans with more restricted choices of doctors and hospitals, and weighing new requirements for referrals before patients can see specialists.</br></br>UnitedHealth Group Inc., Cigna Corp. and others are increasingly requiring doctors to get prior authorization before patients can get certain care such as spinal surgeries.</br></br>Earlier versions of these practices were closely identified with the managed-care era of the 90s. They later receded in many parts of the country, as employers switched away from restrictive health-maintenance organizations, and insurers backed off some limits.