[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 97 (Monday, July 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H5354-H5355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I am here today to express my support for a 
Patients' Bill of Rights act in the strongest and most personal terms. 
I have been in office less than 200 days, and I have grown tired of 
explaining to my constituents why this Congress does not want to extend 
basic rights and protections to patients in this country.
  One of my constituents who suffers from ovarian cancer was refused 
surgery by her HMO on the grounds that the surgery was experimental, 
although this particular procedure had a greater success rate than 
other procedures approved by the HMO.
  And on a more personal basis, my wife about 4 years ago was told by 
her physician she needed surgery. We scheduled an appointment with her 
physician, and he happened to be a high school classmate of mine and 
treated my wife for about 14 years. During the conference with her 
physician, I asked the doctor what needed to be done to accomplish the 
surgery, and he told me that it would be simple.
  Number one, we just needed to schedule surgery, and number two, he 
would write a letter to her insurance company in California and get 
authorization for this surgery. Well, he wrote the letter, and 6 days 
later he got back a letter from the insurance company saying:
  Dear Dr. Sullivan, before we approve this surgery and authorize 
payment for this surgery, we want you to do this test and this test and 
this test.
  Dr. Sullivan was furious about this letter back from the insurance 
company because essentially it was his attitude that she was, my wife 
was his patient. Everything this insurance company knew about my wife's 
case was from medical records provided by Dr. Sullivan to this 
insurance company in California, and yet they were trying to tell him 
how to practice medicine in Kansas.
  After about 5 months of wrangling back and forth, finally there was 
approval and authorization for this surgery, and it worked out fine. 
But the point is every time I tell this story back in my district, I 
see heads nod in the crowd because people have had a similar experience 
with an insurance company; and I think it is time in this country that 
we extend basic protections and rights to patients who need them to 
assure a balance between insurance companies and patients to make sure 
that we are talking about patients here and not just about profits.
  Mr. Speaker, the Senate is debating managed care reform this week. 
Let us give this issue a fair hearing in the

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House of Representatives and give my constituents the fairness they 
deserve.

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