The nation's 127 medical schools are "preparing doctors for medicine of the past," especially in doctor-patient relations, the panel's report said.

Some medical experts worry about consumers' privacy or the possibility of undermining doctor-patient relations.

Plus poor doctor-patient relations.

"I didn't feel I could trust them," says Lack, PhD, now a psychologist who performs research on doctor-patient relations.

Doctor-patient relations would be repeatedly disrupted as employers and sponsors switched H.M.O.'s in search of the cheapest rates.

To the Editor: After years of interfering in doctor-patient relations, exacerbating the problem of the uninsured, denying responsibility for medical education and research and rationing health care, health maintenance organizations are refusing to cover the elderly while asking for rate increases (news article, Oct. 8).