Late last week Senator Burns was the recipient, via full page newspaper ads, of a thank you paid for by the Business Roundtable. Senator Burns was being thanked for supporting the Senate version of the Patient Bill of Rights, an insurance industry sham bill that, unlike the House version, perpetuates the special protection from legal accountability enjoyed by HMOs. Having closely followed Republican leadership and business efforts over the past two years to kill or neuter the Patient Bill of Rights, I was struck by the hypocrisy of the entire ad. First, as Burns and his corporate friends know, the House bill did not create new liabilities for employers. To clarify this and soothe business concerns, the bill was amended early in the process to specifically exclude employers from liability.
Liability is based upon the decision made.
A business would only be liable if it made a medical decision about an employee's care. Second, this was not a bill introduced as special interest legislation by trial lawyers. The bill was introduced by Representative Charlie Norwood, a dentist and a Republican from Georgia. It was cosponsored by a bipartisan 232 member majority of the House. There are increasing instances, nationally and in Montana, where health insurers interfere with the physician-patient relationship and dictate what care a physician can or cannot provide.