Who is a patient's bill of rights designed to protect?

Answer 1

Rights to which patients are entitled as recipients of medical care. It articulates positive rights which doctors, hospitals and other healthcare facilities should provide to patients including but not limited to, fair treatment, right to privacy, and granting autonomy over medical decisions, etc. Each medical facility you visit should have a patient rights handout for you to read and for you to know what you are entitled to from the medical staff as a patient.

This was released in an email from the Presidents office.

A major goal of the Affordable Care Act is to put American consumers back in charge of their coverage and care.

Here are a few key ways these new rules will help do that:

• Stop insurance companies from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions on your children;
• Prohibit insurers from rescinding or taking away your coverage based on an unintentional mistake on an application;
• Ban insurers from setting lifetime limits on your coverage and restrict their use of annual limits on coverage;
• Ensure that you can choose the primary care doctor or pediatrician you want from your plan's provider network;
• Eliminate the need for a referral to see an ob-gyn;
• Prohibit insurance companies from requiring "prior approval" before you seek emergency care at a hospital outside your plan's network.

These rules effectively put in place a basic set of consumer protections known over the years as the "Patient's Bill of Rights." This is a concept introduced 15 years ago and supported by both Democrats and Republicans. After years of effort and the passage of the Affordable Care Act, I'm proud to say we are finally protecting those rights and putting health care back in the right hands: yours.

Answer 2

• Stop insurance companies from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions on your children;
• Prohibit insurers from rescinding or taking away your coverage based on an unintentional mistake on an application;
• Ban insurers from setting lifetime limits on your coverage and restrict their use of annual limits on coverage;
• Ensure that you can choose the primary care doctor or pediatrician you want from your plan's provider network;
• Eliminate the need for a referral to see an ob-gyn;
• Prohibit insurance companies from requiring "prior approval" before you seek emergency care at a hospital outside your plan's network.

Answer 3

Not really: a Bill of Rights for a patient does legally oblige a hospital to follow those rights, but the document itself is not a legal document. The rights of a patient in a hospital applies to all patients in that hospital, and therefore does not have to be executed (signed by both sides of the party) as a legal document.