AMA Endorses Patient-Rights Plan Pushed by House Democrats

The American Medical Assn. on Monday announced its endorsement of a Democrat-led House plan to better protect the rights of patients in managed care plans.

The decision by the AMA, made by its board at a meeting over the weekend in Chicago, was praised by President Clinton for sending “a strong message to Congress” that it is time to pass meaningful patient-rights legislation.

The legislation, sponsored by Reps. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.), would ensure that people in HMOs have access to emergency-room care, guarantee access to specialists, let patients get doctor referrals outside their networks and allow lawsuits against HMOs that deny care.

About 20 House Republicans led by Norwood, dissatisfied with GOP leaders’ plans for more modest legislation, joined Democrats in sponsoring the bill.

“This bill delivers the essential protections patients and voters are demanding,” the AMA president, Dr. Thomas Reardon, said in a statement. “Doctors will be allowed to make medical decisions. Health plans will be held accountable for their actions.”

The AMA said it was joining other groups, including the American Dental Assn. and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in running newspaper ads in the districts of 28 House members in support of the Dingell-Norwood bill.

The insurance and HMO industries are lobbying hard against the legislation, contending that it would drive up the costs of medical care significantly.

Norwood said the AMA endorsement “is a big step forward in passing a bill into law.” He said it confirmed that “the consensus bill is the one bill that can unite both sides of the aisle and restore patient rights in the process.”

The Senate passed a more restrictive GOP-written patients-rights bill in July after rejecting several Democratic provisions, including one that would have allowed patients harmed by medical decisions to sue their health plans for damages.

Clinton said the Senate-passed bill was unacceptable, and aides said he would veto it.

In the House, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other GOP leaders tried unsuccessfully to unite their slim majority behind a Republican bill. Several health care professionals, including Norwood, a dentist, and Rep. Tom A. Coburn of Oklahoma, a physician, demanded stronger legislation similar to that pushed by the Democrats.

Earlier this month, shortly after Norwood and Dingell introduced their plan, Hastert promised a vote on health care reform when Congress returns next month from its August recess.

In a concession to supporters of expanded rights to sue, Hastert said the main vehicle for that vote would be legislation being written by Coburn and Rep. John B. Shadegg (R-Ariz.) that is close to Dingell-Norwood on the lawsuit question.