HMO LIABILITY: Chicago Tribune Says No To Suits

      An editorial in Sunday's Chicago Tribune comes down against amending federal law to allow HMO enrollees to sue their health plans. According to the editorial, such a change would prompt "a flood of malpractice lawsuits against insurers, and even employers. That, in turn, has the potential to undermine the nation's voluntary employer-based health insurance system, adding untold millions to the ranks of the uninsured." The Tribune instead recommends changing the Employee Retirement Income Security Act "to require shielded plans to set up independent and clinically competent physician-review panels to decide, in a timely fashion, what is and isn't medically necessary." The editorial concludes: "Better to put teeth in an administrative review than allow malpractice lawyers to tear the entire health insurance system to shreds" (6/14).