Patients should have a right to know

Do patients have a right to know if an insurance plan is going to force them to use a mail-order pharmacy or the insurance-owned mail order system during open enrollment? Do patients have a right to chose who they receive medical and pharmaceutical care from?

As a pharmacist at a local independent pharmacy, I have been fielding questions from patients using Kaiser Permanente insurance, who began receiving letters indicating they must transfer their prescriptions to a Kaiser pharmacy for continued coverage.

Starting in January, the Kaiser benefits offered by the Public Employees Benefits Board...