Editorial: New Rules on HMO Wait Times Balance Interests

The Department of Managed Health Care's new rules that set maximum wait times for patients to see physicians reflect "a careful and in many ways masterful job" of balancing legislative requirements, a shortage of doctors and patients' desires, an editorial states.  That said, the rules on routine appointments are "less useful" than other provisions of the regulations because they could compromise physicians' availability for more urgent matters, according to the editorial.

• "California's New HMO Rules" (Los Angeles Times, 1/27).