• Senate Set to Debate Patients’ Bill of Rights Legislation

Senate Set to Debate Patients’ Bill of Rights Legislation

Senate Set to Debate Patients’ Bill of Rights Legislation

The NASE is closely watching the progress of the Bipartisan Patients’ Bill of Rights Act of 2001 (S. 1052), sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and John Edwards (D-NC). The Senate will debate this five-year process of providing protection for patients. The debate is expected to be contentious and lengthy. 
The NASE is watching the bill to ensure the best interests of the self-employed are represented. Although the most contentious aspects of the bill concern employers who sponsor health plans, the bill would also affect the self-employed and all individuals with health care plans.
The bill includes provisions that:

• Require plans to include coverage for pediatricians, obstetricians, gynecologists and other specialists

• Require providers to allow patients to go to the nearest emergency room during medical emergencies

• Protect the doctor-patient relationship by ensuring that health care professionals would be free to provide information about a patient's treatment options.

The bill would also allow patients and their doctors to appeal to a doctor on the health plan if coverage on that plan was denied. The most controversial aspects of the bill center on the liability provisions. The bill proposes civil penalties up to $5 million versus punitive damages in federal court and expands the right to sue at the state level. 
The legislation also contains liability language that would allow injury or death cases involving administration decisions to be heard in federal courts while cases involving the review of medical decisions to be heard in state courts. However, it would require patients to exhaust internal and external appeals before trying to hold an HMO accountable in court. The legislation also would protect employers who sponsored health plans from malpractice claims as long as they weren't involved in making medical decisions. 

President Bush has threatened to veto the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill due to the employer liability provisions and concerns that it will significantly raise the cost of health care premiums. The President has supported a competing Patients’ Bill of Rights legislation (S.889) sponsored by Senators Bill Frist (R-TN), John Breaux (D-LA), and James Jeffords (I-VT). However, S.889 is not to be offered in its entirety as a substitute on the floor. It has failed to attract the needed cosponsors to gain significant momentum. Because health care and its associated costs are important issues for the self-employed, the NASE will monitor this and all legislation pertaining to this issue.