WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key Senate ally of President Bush will propose a patients' bill of rights on Tuesday that would give new protections to patients while setting strict limits on court awards against health plans accused of misconduct.
The bill's long-awaited introduction by Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Frist could trigger a major health care fight on the Senate floor pitting the Bush administration against Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy, who favor similar patient protections without such strict limits on lawsuits against health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and insurers.
Currently, patients have little legal recourse against HMOs and other health plans.
Co-sponsored by Sen. John Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat, and Sen. Jim Jeffords, a Vermont Republican, Frist's bill would require patients to exhaust an independent medical review process before taking disputes against HMOs and health insurers to federal court for damages.
Once in court, damage awards under the bill would be capped at $500,000, Breaux said.
Frist drew up his plan after Bush and groups in the managed care industry objected to the more sweeping patients' bill of rights introduced by McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Democratic Sens. Kennedy of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina.
White House officials have described the Frist legislation as a model for negotiating a final package of reforms, but aides to Kennedy said it lacked broad bipartisan support.
"They have no support. It will bring no other Democratic members" besides Breaux, a Kennedy aide said.
ACCESS TO EMERGENCY AND SPECIALTY CARE
Like Frist's bill, the measure proposed by McCain, Kennedy and Edwards would ensure that all 167 million Americans with private health insurance had access to emergency and specialty care.
In contrast to Frist, McCain, Kennedy and Edwards would permit jury awards of up to $5 million in federal court and unlimited punitive damages under state law.
But since its introduction, the $5 million cap has drawn heavy fire from insurance companies and health plan providers, who warned that the bill would trigger a flood of frivolous lawsuits, pushing up health care costs.
Bush, in turn, threatened to veto the bill.
Undeterred, McCain and Edwards said they may propose their patients' bill of rights as an amendment to the Senate's far-reaching education reform plan, Bush's top legislative priority.
While aides to Kennedy dismissed Frist's plan as a nonstarter, Breaux held out hope of reaching a compromise.
"The time is right," said Breaux, adding that his goal was to pass bipartisan legislation in the Senate that "can actually become law."
In the House of Representatives, supporters of the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill have introduced an identical measure, and last week Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, convened a private meeting between its chief supporters and a top White House official.
But the chairman of the House Republican Conference, J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, said it was unclear whether Congress would be able to reach agreement this year on a bipartisan patients' bill of rights. "It wouldn't surprise me if it happened," Watts said. "It wouldn't surprise me if it didn't happen."
©Reuters May 14 2001 11:46PM