107th Congress
Managed Care Reform/Patients' Bill of Rights
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As a registered nurse, I urge you to support enactment of strong, comprehensive, and enforceable protections embodied by the bipartisan McCain-Ganske legislation, S.283 and H.R. 526. The final bill must include the whistle blower provision that protects nurses and other health care professionals from retaliation when they advocate for their patients. Patient advocacy is the cornerstone of my profession, and this provision is carefully crafted to allow me to exercise my ethical responsibility to my patients in institutional settings. |
ANA has been very active in pushing for strong, comprehensive, and enforceable patient protection legislation. ANA has supported the original Patients' Bill of Rights introduced in 1997 and is now strongly backing the provisions of the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act of 2001, S.283/H.R.526. This legislation was introduced in the Senate by Senators John McCain (R-AZ), John Edwards (D-NC), and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and in the House by Reps. Greg Ganske (R-IA) and John Dingell (D-MI).
This compromise bipartisan bill is supported by a large number of consumer and provider groups throughout the nation, including ANA, the American Medical Association, and the AFL-CIO. An important provision for nursing is the language that would protect health care professionals from retaliation when they advocate for their patients in institutional settings. Another important provision would require health plans to allow patients to have access to a full range of health care providers, with no discrimination against some providers solely on the basis of type of licensure. It would also ensure that women can obtain ob-gyn services from any participating health care professional who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology.
In addition to these important issues for nursing, ANA believes that true patient protection legislation must meet the following principles:
- Applies a uniform federal floor of protections to all Americans with private health insurance, allowing states to enact more protective standards.
- Ensures patients recourse to a speedy and genuinely independent external review process when care is denied.
- Allows patients to hold their managed care plan accountable when plan decisions to withhold or limit care result in injury or death.
- Provides for strong comprehensive patient protections.
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