April 2001 • Volume 7 • Number 4
Ask your lawmakers to pass Bipartisan Patient Protection Act
One piece of patients' rights legislation has passed AAFP's litmus test, its principles for managed care reform. Now all that's needed -- with your help -- is for Congress to approve the legislation.
The Bipartisan Patient Protection Act has won the Academy's backing because, for example, it would:
- require reforms by all health care plans, not just self-funded plans;
- prevent retaliation against physicians who serve as advocates for their patients within health plans or before external review panels;
- grant patients the right to legal recourse in state courts when the plans' negligent medical decisions result in death or injury;
- ensure patients' right to legal recourse in federal courts when such courts have jurisdiction over plans' administration or benefit decisions -- with a liability cap on punitive damages; and
- mandate allowances for nonformulary drugs.
Leading proponents of the legislation, S. 283 and H.R. 526, are Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.; Rep. Greg Ganske, R-Iowa; and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.
Other managed care reform bills have been introduced in this session of Congress, and additional ones are being drafted, but the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act is the first one meeting key AAFP criteria. If later bills reflect AAFP principles, the Academy will most likely endorse them.
The Academy encourages you to contact your members of Congress and seek their support for S. 283 and H.R. 526. You might want to use the message the AAFP has posted in Speak Out! as an e-mail to your lawmakers or as a sample letter. Access Speak Out! at http://capitol.aafp.org. Then click on "Write to Congress" and letters supporting H.R. 526 and S. 283.
Sen. John McCain Sen. Edward Kennedy Sen. John Edwards Rep. Greg Ganske Rep. John Dingell
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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