Abstract
The specific analysis of HDC-ABMT will help the reader to realize that the medical procedures being dealt with by litigation are not necessarily wildly innovative. Insurance companies are hiding behind the guise of words such as "experimental" to avoid paying for treatments that are both feasible and needed. Further, HDC-ABMT being used for breast cancer patients, suggests a possible discriminatory aspect that cannot be reached with current legal intervention. This Note suggests ways of dealing with insurance coverage denial on a more direct level. Instead of being bogged down by contract language and ERISA preemption, proposals for national standards and expert committees would rectify the injustice of benefit denial by taking away insurance company discretion. Then Courts could deal with case by case scenarios according to the actual denial, not the language of a provision in a contract.
Recommended Citation
Note, Current Legal Intervention Regarding Experimental Treatments Must Be Changed: An Analysis of High Doses of Chemotherapy with Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer Patients, 13 J.L. & Health 257 (1998-1999)