Doctor access rules rejected

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger backed away Wednesday from his HMO regulator’s program for letting health plans design rules for ensuring that patients have timely appointments with doctors.

The administration rejected regulations drafted by the Department of Managed Health Care that would have put into place a 2002 law requiring California to make sure patients had reasonable access to their doctors.

Consumer advocates said the department ignored the law by declining to define timely access and instead delegated the task to HMOs.

The Office of Administrative Law, which reviews proposed agency rules for the governor, rejected the regulations Wednesday on technical grounds, saying the department had not given the public adequate time to provide comments. Sabrina Lockhart, a Schwarzenegger spokeswoman, said the department “will take this opportunity to review some of the concerns the administration has received recently about the regulations.”

The administration is four years behind schedule in enacting the law. The previous version, which had specific timetables for HMOS -- such as a waiting time of no more than 22 days for patients seeking preventive care appointments with specialists -- was withdrawn by the department after health plans and some of their doctors objected.

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