The BMA has renewed its call for the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) to investigate attempts by private health insurers to control consultants’ fees.
BMA News reported last month that the association’s private practice committee had written to the OFT calling for it to examine insurers’ fees schedules.
The PPC is concerned some insurers are constraining consultants and limiting consumer choice by only ‘recognising’ those practitioners who charge the fees determined by them.
Now the PPC has stepped up its calls for a full-scale investigation in its response to the OFT’s scoping paper on a proposed study into the private healthcare market.
In its response, PPC chair Derek Machin (pictured) says: ‘Our perception is that some PMIs (private medical insurers)… have undue influence on consumer choice and consultants’ entry to the market owing to their recognition criteria through which they assume roles of semi-regulator and quality controller, limit patient access to consultants and, more recently, control consultant fees.’
The OFT should also consider the lack of any independent arbitration mechanism when there are disputes between consultants and private insurance companies over fees, the PPC says.
Medico-Legal News Source: BMA
