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House passes bill to expand patients' rights
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10-18-99 Washington. By a vote of 275-151, the House of Representatives last week passed a patients' bill of rights that-if it becomes law-would give patients the right to sue their HMOs for denied or delayed care. In approving the bipartisan Consensus Managed Care Improvement Act (HR 2723), the House rejected several alternatives, including one that House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., had pleaded for on the House floor. Co-sponsored by Reps. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., and John Dingell, D-Mich., the bill would no longer allow managed care plans to decide when a treatment is a "medical necessity." Instead, such decisions would be made by an independent external appeals panel. Patients would also have better access to specialists, emergency rooms, and clinical trials. The vote was lambasted by managed care companies. "We don't think it's in anyone's best interests for healthcare companies to be held liable for mistakes made by doctors, which is what this bill would do," said Matthew Schiffgens, a spokesperson with Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente. But final passage may be difficult because one day before the vote Republican House members succeeded in yoking the bill to another tax breaks HR 2990, that would create tax breaks to help millions buy health insurance. The Clinton administration opposes the tax breaks and has threatened a veto. Even those who support the goals of HR 2990 have cried foul. "There are many parts of [HR 2990] that we favor," said John Stone, a spokesperson for Norwood. "But healthcare accessibility has nothing to do with patients' rights, and we feel the bills should be considered separately, not as a single bill." The bill now goes to a joint conference committee, where differences with a more limited managed care reform bill passed last month in the Senate will be ironed out.
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