ABSTRACT
In 1996, a three-month-old girl was taken to the pediatric oncology group at the University of North Carolina Hospital. After she was diagnosed with leukemia, her physician recommended a bone marrow transplant. There were two excellent transplant facilities nearby. Nonetheless, the family's HMO asked the physicians to refer the baby to what it called a 'center of quality,' a transplantation center in another state that the HMO had approved for that region.
