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By REUTERS
Filed at 6:58 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - The new patients' rights bill introduced
last week by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and others
would actually be more of a threat to managed care plans and the nation's
health care system than previous versions, said a group
on Tuesday that represents managed care companies.
``Kennedy-McCain is a threat to the health insurance system as we know it,'' said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of the American Association of Health Plans. ``What you have here is an issue of runaway liability, with great cost to patients,'' she said.
Specifically, AAHP officials charged, the bill would actually expand
the right to sue beyond what was allowed in earlier versions of the bill.
``In fact, this bill expands the scope of claims that could be
brought as class actions,'' said AAHP vice president for policy Rick
Smith.
The AAHP also charged that while the sponsors of the new bill made much of the fact that existing state damage award caps would apply in state lawsuits allowed under the bill, that is not the same as caps on malpractice suits many states have. ''These are not malpractice cases,'' said Smith, ``they are denial of benefit cases.''
In an interview, Rep. Greg Ganske, R-Iowa, one of the sponsors of the new bill, conceded that the state cases would be subject to caps only if those caps apply to corporations in general, not to malpractice cases.
But Ganske insisted that the bill does represent a compromise. ``It was a major concession on the part of Democrats to put a $5 million cap on damages'' in federal court, he said.
Ganske also said that claims about class action suits ``are a red herring.
These are individual cases involving individual diseases,'' he said. ``They
don't lend themselves to class actions.''