State accreditation rule has HMOs scrambling. (Florida; health maintenance organizations)

A new state law requiring health maintenance organizations to become accredited has them scrambling to document their level of care.

But supporters of the requirement say that the new standards will help the HMO industry recover from the black eye it received during the 1980s.

HMO operators say the rules will inspire confidence in consumers, who got a bad taste in their mouth on HMOs when some spectacular failures hit the press.

"We lobbied to get legislation in place," said Bob Hudson, AV-MED executive vice president of customer care. "The industry had gotten a bad name. . .We think accreditation is good for everybody."

The requirements, which took …