Speaker discusses HMOs, patients' fear

These days, just mentioning the acronym "HMO" -- for health-maintenance organization -- draws nothing less than fear, anger and disillusionment in the hearts of many patients and health care professionals. But, according to Robert Blendon, a professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at the Harvard University School of Public Health, HMOs may not necessarily deserve their bad reps. Thursday night, more than 350 students and health care professionals listened to Blendon's theories on "The Public and the Managed Care Backlash." In addition, several professors honored Penn Professor Linda Aiken for her 12 years of dedication to the School of Nursing. Blendon's work involves researching the public's understanding and attitudes about many issues, including politics and health care. Managed care is the payment of medical treatments of patients by insurance companies. Insurance companies have the option to approve or deny payments based on their specific policies. Patients, according to Blendon, will put up with inconveniences usually associated with insurance companies, such as being put on hold for hours and dealing with mounds of paperwork. But he said people's greatest fear is that they won't get coverage when they need it. Blendon informally polled the audience on this issue. A majority raised their hands in agreement with the opinion that insurance companies deny coverage when patients are terminally ill. He said that this kind of action by an HMO is an exception, not the rule. To deal with this widespread public fear, Blendon said the federal government would have to come up with a patients' "Bill of Rights" to protect against these situations. He said lawmakers had the opportunity to do this in August, but the public's attention was quickly diverted by President Clinton's sex scandal. "Managed care is here to stay," Blendon said. He predicted that in the future, employers would give their employees a certain amount of money to choose their own managed care providers. Engineering and Nursing freshman Susan Bruce said the speech "was a good opportunity to hear about the problems with managed care," adding that "the future of managed care is important to my field of study." Blendon also introduced Aiken, who was appointed to a five-year term as the Claire Fagin Leadership Chair. "Linda Aiken in my career has not bridged, but led, in places where nurses and women were never before," Blendon said. Fagin, for whom the chair was named, served as the third dean of the Nursing School. She was also the interim president of the University from July 1993 to June 1994 -- the first female president in the Ivy League. The endowed chair was established in 1991, and according to Fagin, is awarded to a faculty member who intends to do research in nursing. Aiken, who is also the director of the Center for Health Services and Policy Research, is the first recipient of this honor.