Patient Protections

September 30, 1999

ISSUE:

House Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.) has scheduled a vote on the House floor for Patients' Rights legislation during the week of Oct. 4th. The bipartisan bill introduced by Norwood (R- Ga.) and Dingell (D-Mich.) seems to have a majority of the House Members supporting it. The Speaker also may allow a vote on a bill introduced by Coburn (R-Okla) and Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and a bill offered by Boehner (R-Ohio) bill.

Hastert has not endorsed the Coburn-Shadegg bill (H.R. 2824), which he had turned to in August as a rallying point for House Republicans. Coburn and Shadegg have produced a more limited "right-to-sue"provision than the Norwood-Dingell bill (H.R. 2723), but not limited enough to satisfy the Republican leadership. Rep. Boehner's bill, which is being written, will not include the right to sue.

ACTION:

Contact your Representative immediately! Urge him or her to support the bipartisan Norwood-Dingell bill. Urge them to maintain the liability provision in Norwood-Dingell and to oppose any amendments that weaken external appeals or reduce the number of patients who would be protected. Ask them to support defining medical necessity so that it becomes harder for health plans to deny coverage recommended by a physician.

Contact your Senators and urge them to overturn S. 1344 (passed by the Senate on July 15) and instead to support the Patients' Bill of Rights (S. 6) which more closely resembles H.R. 2723. If S. 6 cannot replace S. 1344, ask support for H.R. 2723 in conference.

WRITE OR PHONE:

The Honorable _______
The U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable _______
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121. You may obtain your Senator's or House member's Washington fax number or e-mail address by calling the state or district office, or search on-line through http://thomas.loc.gov.

BACKGROUND:

The strategy of the House leadership seems to be to use Norwood-Dingell as the base bill for a vote by the full House and to amend it on the floor. Norwood-Dingell appears to have the most support of the three bills that may be voted on as members face adjournment of the first session of the 106th Congress. The Coburn-Shadegg bill may be voted on as a substitute along with another substitute based on the legislation approved by Boehner's Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations. In June, the subcommittee approved a package of eight bills that provide a limited number of expanded protections for managed care patients.

House members, therefore, may be given three choices on where to focus on patients' protections: (1) the broad liability provision in Norwood-Dingell, which includes the controversial right-to-sue issue; (2) the more limited liability provision in the Coburn-Shadegg bill; and (3) a third bill with external appeals but no liability. Although some House Republican leaders strongly oppose any legislation that would expand liability for health plans and employers, Hastert recognizes that the House cannot move a bill which does not include some kind of right to sue holding health plans accountable for bad decisions that harm patients. Norwood and Coburn are health providers: Norwood is a dentist and Coburn is an obstetrician. Both the Norwood-Dingell and Coburn-Shadegg bills include language shielding employers.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY GUIDANCE:

The 211th General Assembly (1999) approved a resolution on managed care that affirms that "every system of health-care provision should have as its goal the wellness, wholeness, and integrity of its users. A health-care system should not treat the physical ailments of a user while the system's character, attitudes, relationship, and communication with the user cause stress and anxiety, or exclude persons from receiving service or from participating in decisions about their own healing." "Health Care: Policies and Activities," another 1999 GA statement, directs the PC(USA) Washington Office, until a national medical plan for the United States is adopted, to advocate on behalf of the uninsured, underinsured, and other vulnerable populations.