Office of Managed Care Patient Assistance Opens in North Carolina

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley (D) on Nov. 25 opened a new Office of Managed Care Patient Assistance in the state Department of Justice as part of a patients' rights law enacted last October, the AP/Raleigh News & Observer reports (AP/Raleigh News & Observer, 11/26). Under the law, patients can sue their health plans in state court for denials of care after they exhaust internal and external appeals. The law required Easley to establish a patient assistance office last December, but a dispute over whether the state justice department or Department of Insurance should administer the office delayed the decision. Easley in May decided that the justice department would administer the office (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/14). The four-employee patient assistance office will explain health coverage to managed care patients in "easy-to-understand" language and help them file grievances and appeals against their managed care plans. About two million North Carolina residents are in managed care plans. "This office is committed to helping those citizens ... as they deal with the bureaucratic maze as they go through the health care system," Easley said (AP/Raleigh News & Observer, 11/26).