[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 69 Held at Desk Senate (HDS)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. CON. RES. 69

   Expressing the sense of the Congress that any legislation that is 
 enacted to provide for national health care reform should provide for 
compensation for poison control center services, and that a commission 
   should be established to study the delivery and funding of poison 
                           control services.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                  May 9 (legislative day, May 2), 1994

Mr. Metzenbaum submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
                        ordered held at the desk

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of the Congress that any legislation that is 
 enacted to provide for national health care reform should provide for 
compensation for poison control center services, and that a commission 
   should be established to study the delivery and funding of poison 
                           control services.

Whereas poisoning remains a significant public health problem in the United 
        States, especially for children;
Whereas, in 1991 alone, more than 13,000 persons died in the United States due 
        to poisoning, including approximately 6,400 persons who died from 
        unintentional poisoning;
Whereas 60 percent of the 2,400,000 poison exposure cases reported to poison 
        control centers in 1992 involved children younger than 6 years of age;
Whereas poison control centers save lives by providing free first-aid advice 
        over the telephone to poison victims, health care professionals, and 
        frightened parents of poisoned children;
Whereas physicians, hospitals, public health departments, and the public depend 
        on poison control centers to provide indispensable emergency advice and 
        treatment information for poisonings, and to be available 24 hours 
        during each day of the year;
Whereas no other community health care service has the facilities and expertise 
        to monitor the hundreds of thousands of consumer products with which 
        children are unintentionally poisoned every day, or to provide the 
        proper antidote advice when a person has been exposed to such consumer 
        products;
Whereas poison control centers across the country are closing or drastically 
        reducing the services they provide, due to misguided attempts by 
        hospitals and States to save money;
Whereas approximately \1/2\ of the 38 poison control centers in the Nation that 
        meet national standards are in financial jeopardy, and lack of funding 
        has caused some poison control centers to stop answering some emergency 
        telephone calls;
Whereas many hospitals have stopped funding poison control centers because of 
        funding constraints and because most poison control centers serve a 
        wider geographic area than is served by any 1 hospital;
Whereas closing poison control centers increases the cost of health care, and 
        needlessly places the lives of millions of children at risk;
Whereas poison control centers are cost efficient and economical because over 70 
        percent of the cases assisted by poison centers are resolved over the 
        telephone while the patient is in the patient's own home, which avoids 
        unnecessary emergency room visits, ambulance use, and hospital 
        admissions;
Whereas every $1.00 spent on poison control centers saves at least $7.75 in 
        health care costs;
Whereas, if poison control centers were not available, 600,000 additional 
        poisoning victims would be unnecessarily treated in hospitals each year, 
        at a much higher cost than the cost of assistance by a poison control 
        center;
Whereas health care for Americans will cost $545,000,000 less each year if 
        access to quality poison control centers is provided to all Americans 
        than if no such access is provided, even after the costs of providing 
        poison control center services are considered; and
Whereas Federal leadership in the funding plight of the Nation's poison control 
        centers has been nonexistent: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that--
            (1) any legislation that is enacted to provide for national 
        health care reform should contain provisions that ensure that 
        qualified poison control centers that meet national standards 
        and are certified by the American Association of Poison Control 
        Centers are fairly and adequately compensated by means that may 
        include--
                    (A) a fee for service mechanism under which each 
                health benefit plan would pay a fee for each service 
                rendered by a poison control center to a member of the 
                plan;
                    (B) a per capita mechanism, under which each health 
                benefit plan would pay a negotiated or predetermined 
                amount, based on the number of members in the plan or 
                the amount of poison control center services used by 
                members of the plan in the past, to support poison 
                control centers; or
                    (C) an expanded public health program, including a 
                program of Federal or State matching grants; and
            (2) a national commission should be established, under the 
        auspices of the Public Health Service or in any other 
        appropriate format, to study the delivery and funding of poison 
        control services, including--
                    (A) means to maximize the use of information 
                technologies in the delivery of poison control 
                services; and
                    (B) possible use of a nationwide, toll-free 
                telephone number as a means for the public to receive 
                poison control services.

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