I would love to be corrected if I'm wrong, but if the LC is part of the hospital "marketing" package of service and the HOSPITAL does not have a disclaimer under its service listing that it may be limited by the choice of each physician, then when physicians sign on with a hospital aren't they accepting this hospital provided maternity service ? Especially in the cases where it is "free"? I can kind of see the potiential to limit if the service is chargable to the patient or insurance (due to how our system now runs and the penalties physicians face)if the insurance plan calls for physician generated consults for services. To me, in the cases where this is part of that hospitals patient services package and " marketing", then unless there are well documented concerns about the LC service ( which the hospital should be addressing) an arbitrary restricition doesn't make good marketing sense for the hospital to not clarify why this situation is occuring. Even a simplistic example would be the hospital marketing their "family centered care" by encouraging suport persons to stay with a new mother and then an individual physician choosing for what ever reason to say none of their patients can have a support person stay. Unless there is a well documented rationale, then denying "free" supportive services to promote a comfortable transition seems really weird and undermines the hospital's marketing and patient satisfaction with the HOSPITAL services. I think I would discuss this with the Maternal Child Director, Service Chief and Marketing director, write the physician asking him/her to please address any concerns and look at what is said. Maybe he's afraid that while the LC service is free in the hospital, discharge followup is not free and he's trying to manage after care costs. Otherwise, without appearing spiteful or undermining, if things don't work out I would see if the facility could draft a letter for this physicians patients that just outlines that while these services are free and available, their specific physician prefers not to utilize these services and his patients must have a written referral before being assisted. The physician IS in " charge" of their patients services but that also includes being responsible for explaining to THEM why he chooses to limit free support services to meet their goals . Ahhh, it's ok to give out "free" formula bags because "we don't want to deprive patients of things" but we will support limiting access to services that promotes infant and maternal health................... Don't you love the logic in this world? Lisa Jones *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html