PATIENTS’ RIGHTS: White House Visit Yields No Progress

      Key congressional leaders emerged yesterday from a meeting with President Clinton on HMO reform "with little progress to report, other than commitments to continue the slow grind toward agreement on a bill," CongressDaily/A.M. reports. Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, "We've been through a very deliberative process. ... It's slow, but it's working." While a timeline for a final draft and voting schedule "remains unclear," Senate Majority Whip and Conference Chair Don Nickles (R-Okla.) said, "We want to pass this bill sooner rather than later, but our main intention is to pass a good bill. [W]e're changing every health plan in America. It has to be done right." But Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said that given other pressing legislative priorities, such as China's trade status, the Republicans have a "de facto" deadline of about a month to settle major managed care reform issues (Koffler, 5/12). Two of those issues are: "how many Americans should be covered by the proposed 'patients' bill of rights' and whether they should be able to sue a health plan when treatment is denied improperly. Nickles said the House bill "would allow unlimited punitive damages" against insurance companies that cause patient harm by denying coverage, but Senate leaders "won't accept that." For their part, Democrats also have raised objections over the scope of coverage. "If we're not providing protection to all Americans, then there's no sense for us to continue negotiations," Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said (Babington/ Dewar, Washington Post, 5/12).