[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 59 (Tuesday, May 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S4664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, earlier this morning, some of us were on 
the floor urging the Senate to bring up the Patients' Bill of Rights, a 
very important bill that would essentially protect patients from 
decisions made by accountants and bureaucrats in insurance companies 
and have their health care decisions made by physicians.
  I was talking with the Senator from North Dakota who has been 
presenting a number of cases that proves our point as to why this 
legislation is needed, and he shared with me a most extraordinary case 
coming out of California. I am going to tell the Senate about this 
case, because we cannot close our eyes to what is happening.
  I share with you the case of Joyce Ching from Agoura, CA. Joyce Ching 
lived with her husband David and 5-year-old son Justin. In 1992, when 
David switched jobs, he was offered an array of plans, but Joyce 
convinced him to join an HMO because she wanted the entire family to go 
to the same place to get their care.
  In the summer of 1994, Joyce got sick. She began to suffer from 
severe abdominal pain and from rectal bleeding. The pain was so 
excruciating that some days she couldn't even get out of bed to be with 
her son. She visited her HMO doctor and was refused referral to a 
specialist.
  I am not a physician, but I know enough people who have had problems, 
and when you have rectal bleeding, that is a sign that something is 
amiss. Yet, this HMO did not refer her to a specialist. Do you know 
what her doctor in the HMO told her? That her symptoms would be 
alleviated by a change in diet.
  She changed her diet, and the symptoms were not alleviated. Fearing 
that her illness could hamper her chances of having a second child, she 
continued to complain to the physician that her pain was getting worse, 
and the doctor said, ``Give your diet time,'' and still would not refer 
her to a specialist.
  Finally, after nearly 3 months and countless visits, she was referred 
to a gastroenterologist, but it was too late. Joyce, 34 years old, was 
diagnosed in the final stages of colon cancer.
  What is so shocking about this case is that her doctor never really 
listened to her concerns and never sent her to a specialist. When you 
find out why, it will send chills up and down your spine. There was a 
deal in that HMO. They looked at Joyce's profile and they decided: A 
healthy woman in her thirties, we can't spend more than $28 a month on 
Joyce.
  I will conclude with this, Mr. President. The HMO's accountants 
decided that Joyce should cost the HMO $28 a month, and they told the 
doctor, ``If she costs you any more than that, your clinic will have to 
pay out of its own pocket.'' So there was a deal made to give 
incentives to that clinic not to treat this woman, and she is gone. She 
is gone forever from the lives of her husband and her beautiful son, 
and she died at 34.
  I have to say, when we stand up here day after day with these cases, 
it is not to hear the sound of our own voices, because there are 
thousands and thousands of stories like this, and people want action. 
They want decisions made by physicians. They want patients and 
physicians to be honest with each other. They don't want incentive 
payments to doctors so that they will not be treated. This is a tragedy 
that you cannot even measure, Mr. President. I call on the leadership 
to allow us to bring up the Patients' Bill of Rights. I yield the 
floor.

                          ____________________