A local doctor and legislator is behind a citizen effort to keep patients from having to switch physicians when their employers change health insurance carriers.

Missourians United for Choice in Healthcare, a coalition of patients, physicians and other health care providers, announced that they soon would launch a signature-gathering campaign to put the issue before voters in the November 2010 election during a Wednesday press conference in Springfield, Mo.

“A person should be able to choose his or her own physician and other providers,” Rep. Dr. Rob Schaaf told the News-Press. “The decision shouldn’t be made by an employer or an insurance company.”

Dr. Schaaf, a St. Joseph Republican, for six years has proposed what he calls “any willing provider” legislation that would have allowed physicians to follow their patients when their employers switched insurance providers, which he said isn’t always possible under Missouri law.

“Being that the Legislature wasn’t able to (pass it) so many times, they thought the best way to get the law passed was just to go around the Legislature,” Dr. Schaaf said.

The group is trying to change the law so physicians have the option to apply and contract with the patient’s new insurance company, so long as the physician qualifies

under certain criteria the insurance company sets and the physician is willing to accept the company’s fee or pay schedule.

“Some insurance companies won’t allow certain physicians onto their panel for whatever reason,” Dr. Schaaf explained.

The issue is underlined in Springfield, where two competing hospitals with their own insurance companies have mutually exclusive physician panels. That means any time an employer switches from one to the other, the patient must find new doctors at a different hospital.

Coalition President Holly Cuoco, of Springfield, said that poses significant strain on patients being treated for cancer and other serious conditions. Also, she noted that people in their 20s now are expected to have at least 10 jobs in their lifetime.

“Do you really want to be in a position where every time you change a job, you have to change a doctor?” asked Ms. Cuoco, a cancer survivor. She added that at least 31 other states have any-willing-provider friendly laws.

But don’t expect everyone in the Missouri health industry to hop on board to the concept, said Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields, a St. Joseph Republican who also is chief marketing officer for Heartland Health. Heartland is in the middle of phasing out its own health insurance company, Community Health Plan.

He said he agreed that if voters support the effort, it could improve patient access to providers, but it also could decrease the ability for insurance companies to achieve discounts by selecting the physicians they want.

“It really gets down to the really large insurance carriers and the people who buy insurance,” Mr. Shields said. “And that’s where the opposition will come ... because it probably will drive up cost.”

He agreed the issue becomes more paramount in larger cities or communities such as Springfield with competing hospitals.

“It’s a different issue in a community like St. Joseph, though,” he said. “I don’t know too many physicians who couldn’t get onto (Heartland’s insurance).”

Missourians United for Choice in Healthcare members contend the change won’t increase health care costs.

The group has until spring 2010 to collect at least 155,000 valid signatures for the question to end up on the November ballot. They received permission from the Missouri Secretary of State’s office to begin collecting signatures last week. For more information, visit www.mohealthcarechoice.com.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached

at alysonraletz@npgco.com.