After hours of heated debate, the House passed a compromised version of the Patients’ Rights Bill.

The bill will allow patients to sue their HMOs in state court if they were denied proper care. Damages have been capped at $1.5 million.

The bipartisan Ganske-Dingell-Norwood bill would’ve allowed charges to be filed in either federal or state court, with capped damages at $5 million. The Bush-backed Fletcher-Peterson bill limited patients’ rights to sue their HMO; allowing them to only file in federal courts with limited ability to file in state court.

Damages would have been capped at only $500,000.

However, both bills would’ve allowed patients and their health care provider to have more power over treatment, included provisions that allowed patients to choose their own doctor, protected against gag clauses, which kept doctors from discussing patients’ conditions or treatment options if not covered by the patient’s health care plan, access to specialists, emergency room care and clinical trials.

After 11 hours of debate, President Bush and Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Georgia), a key sponsor of the democratic version of the bill reached a compromise, which allows patients to sue their HMOs in state court under a federal standard and to sue their employers in federal court.

Bush was quoted as saying, “Iwanted a bill that was good for patients, a bill that allowed people to be able to air their grievances, a bill that did not encourage frivolous lawsuits.”

The compromise capped damages at $1.5 million — three times higher than the Fletcher-Proposal, but 50% less than the Ganske-Dingell proposal.

SOURCE: Health Biz News, www.healthbiznews.com, August 3, 2001.