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Proposal would require health plans, doctors to cut appointment wait times

California soon may become the first state in the nation to set a maximum number of hours a health plan enrollee may wait before getting in to see a doctor.

Under the proposed regulations that are six years in the making, a patient needing an "urgent" appointment for a service not requiring prior authorization must be seen within 48 hours. For urgent appointments requiring prior authorization, they must be seen within 96 hours.

Patients would be allowed to speak with a doctor on the phone or receive a "triage" call back from a health professional–not answering service personnel–within 10 minutes, no matter what time of the day or night they call.

Read the full story by HealthLeaders Media’s Cheryl Clark.