Rush Prudential HMO, Inc. v. Moran, 536 U.S. 355, 7 (2002)

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Cite as: 536 U. S. 355 (2002)

Opinion of the Court

2000). Rush instead proposed that Moran undergo standard surgery, performed by a physician affiliated with Rush.

In January 1998, Moran made a written demand for an independent medical review of her claim, as guaranteed by § 4-10 of Illinois's HMO Act, 215 Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 125, § 4-10 et seq. (2000), which provides:

"Each Health Maintenance Organization shall provide a mechanism for the timely review by a physician holding the same class of license as the primary care physician, who is unaffiliated with the Health Maintenance Organization, jointly selected by the patient . . . , primary care physician and the Health Maintenance Organization in the event of a dispute between the primary care physician and the Health Maintenance Organization regarding the medical necessity of a covered service proposed by a primary care physician. In the event that the reviewing physician determines the covered service to be medically necessary, the Health Maintenance Organization shall provide the covered service."

The Act defines a "Health Maintenance Organization" as

"any organization formed under the laws of this or another state to provide or arrange for one or more health care plans under a system which causes any part of the risk of health care delivery to be borne by the organization or its providers." Ch. 125, § 1-2.1

1 In the health care industry, the term "Health Maintenance Organization" has been defined as "[a] prepaid organized delivery system where the organization and the primary care physicians assume some financial risk for the care provided to its enrolled members. . . . In a pure HMO, members must obtain care from within the system if it is to be reimbursed." Weiner & de Lissovoy, Razing a Tower of Babel: A Taxonomy for Managed Care and Health Insurance Plans, 18 J. of Health Politics, Policy and Law 75, 96 (Spring 1993) (emphasis in original). The term "Managed Care Organization" is used more broadly to refer to any number of systems combining health care delivery with financing. Id., at 97. The Illinois definition of HMO does not appear to be limited to the tradi-

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