In addition to the Rx for Abuse Act, at the request of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the FVPF helped to develop an amendment to the Patients' Bill of Rights legislation that required private insurers to cover domestic violence screening and follow-up services. Unfortunately, the Patients' Bill of Rights was never offered. However, the Senator's interest was piqued. The FVPF is now working with Senator Lautenberg's staff on a freestanding screening and services bill, targeted at health services under Medicaid, Indian Health Services, and military-related health care. More information about the bill will be posted as it develops.
Domestic violence is a health care problem of epidemic proportion.
In the United States, approximately one in three women is abused at some point in her life and a recent study estimated that women make close to 700,000 visits to the health care system per year as a result of injuries due to physical assault. In addition to the immediate trauma caused by abuse, domestic violence contributes to a number of chronic health problems, including depression, alcohol and substance abuse, and often limits the ability of women to manage other chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension. Despite these facts, a critical gap remains in the delivery of health care to battered women, with many providers discharging a woman with only the presenting injuries being treated, leaving the underlying cause of those injuries unaddressed. However, most battered women who seek medical attention are sent home to the same unsafe situation that was the original cause of their injuries, because their physicians lack the training and support to appropriately identify, treat or refer victims of domestic violence. The FVPF conceived of and developed the Rx for Abuse Act in response to this gap in service provision.