Family Physicians Urge House to Go Beyond Senate Small Step on Patients Rights
To: National Desk, Health Care
Reporter Contact: Maureen Maxwell of the American Academy of Family Physicians, 888-794-7481 or 202-232-9033
WASHINGTON, July 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Yesterday, the U.S. Senate moved the health care debate forward by passing the Patients' Bill of Rights. Now it is up to the House of Representatives to ensure that final legislation fully protects all Americans.
As passed, the Patient Bill of Rights continues to fall woefully short of providing even limited protections for all patients enrolled in managed care plans. Patients covered are only those enrolled in self-insured plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) -- this is only 48 million of the 161 million Americans who need protection.
"The Senate took a small but insufficient step yesterday in favor of patients' rights in managed care but has missed an opportunity to fully protect patients. Now it's up to the House of Representatives to go the full distance to develop legislation that will fully protect all Americans," said Neil Brooks, M.D., chairman of the board of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).
The AAFP calls for the House to make sure the Patient Bill of Rights actually protects all patients. Provisions that must be included in the final version are:
-- expanding the bill to cover all health plans, not just those governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA),
-- gag clause protections to cover all physician-patient communication,
-- prevention of retaliation by health plans towards physicians who advocate on behalf of their patients within the health plan or before an external review entity,
-- the right of court recourse for patients seeking enforcement of external review decisions,
-- the right of physicians to make medical decisions in keeping with generally accepted standards of medical practice, which include the findings of medical research where available,
-- external appeals panels must be allowed to establish independent definitions of medical necessity, uninfluenced by a health plan's definitions or previous decisions,
-- patients should be free to choose their health care professionals.
In addition, family physicians, who see one out of four women for their health care needs, should be included in any provisions ensuring access to physicians specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. The same inclusion should be made for access to physicians who specialize in seeing children, as family physicians see one out of every five children in the U.S.
"If this were rated on a Shakespearean scale, it would be somewhere between "Much Ado About Nothing" and " A Midsummer's Night Dream," said Robert Graham, M.D., executive vice president of the AAFP.
Founded in 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians represents more than 88,000 family physicians, family practice residents and medical students nationwide. Family physicians are medical specialists trained to treat the medical problems of patients of all ages and both sexes.
-0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 07/16 16:55
Copyright 1999, U.S. Newswire
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