California’s Department of Managed Health Care has issued new rules on timeliness of patients’ accessing HMO providers.  Now, the HMO physicians will have to see patients within 10 days of when they sought an appointment; within 15 days for a specialist; and within 48 hours for urgent care.  If this doesn’t seem very quick, it’s nearly greased lightening compared to the 24 days San Diegians typically wait or 59 days for subscribers in Los Angeles.  And, talk about wait, it took the Department seven years to reach these new rules.             MORE