• The "real" patients' bill of rights passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year on a strong bipartisan vote. This bill is now in conference with a weak and unacceptable Senate version. The House version of the bill gives patients the right to sue their HMOs and protects employees who blow the whistle on dangerous practices. The Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals is working hard to make sure these protections are included in the final version of the Senate bill and that a "real" Patients' Bill of Rights is enacted into law. Use the FNHP/AFT Web site to contact your senators to do the "real" thing: http://www.aft.org/healthcare.
  
  
• A bill that would give independent physicians the right to collectively bargain with health plans--currently being called the Campbell Bill, after U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Calif.)--has an extensive list of supporters and the strong support of the FNHP/AFT. In a letter supporting H.R. 1304, FNHP/AFT president Sandra Feldman wrote: "The AFT supports your bill because it will enhance the ability of doctors and other health care professionals to collectively bargain with HMOs and other managed care providers and thereby regain a greater measure of control over patient care decisions." The bill would give anti-trust exemptions to associations of health care professionals (including physicians, nurses and other health care professionals) who negotiate working conditions and compensation with managed care organizations. H.R. 1304 is formally known as the Quality Health-Care Coalition Act of 1999. Action is expected in the House of Representatives early this year.
  
  
• Federal legislation that requires drug companies to give Medicare beneficiaries substantial reductions in the price of prescription drugs--currently being called the Allen Bill, after U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine)--also has the strong support of the FNHP/AFT.

H.R. 664 would allow pharmacies to purchase prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries at the same low prices available to the federal government and other mass providers like HMOs.

Recently, Rep. Allen held a press conference with seniors departing on a bus to Montreal to purchase prescription drugs at discount prices. "Our eventual goal is to get seniors off the bus so they don't have to go to another country to buy the medications their doctors tell them they have to take."

Some estimates show that, while people age 65 and older make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, they consume almost 35 percent of all prescription drugs.

A free copy of the U.S. House of Representatives' Prescription Drug Task Force fact sheets entitled "Seniors Beware: The Need for Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage..." is available online.

ON THE STATE LEVEL

• At the state level, New Jersey's Gov. Whitman signed into law a safe-needle bill that requires hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities to use only needles that have built-in safety features. Nationally, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 doctors, nurses and laboratory staff and other workers suffer needle sticks every year. In New Jersey, an estimated 20,000 needle-stick injuries occur annually. The N.J. bill allows health care professionals to use a traditional needle if they think a safety device would jeopardize patient safety or the success of a medical procedure. "It's model legislation that protects health care worker and patient safety," says Health Professionals and Allied Employees/FNHP spokesperson Jeanne Otersen. The HPAE and its partners in the Patients First Coalition have also introduced a New Jersey bill limiting the use of unlicensed assistive personnel.
  
  
• The Oregon FNHP, along with the state AFL-CIO, is designing, supporting and getting sponsors for the state's own "patients" bill of rights," which would appear as a ballot initiative during the November elections. There are several versions of the bill being endorsed by labor groups. Like their federal counterparts, the Oregon bills govern HMO accountability; provisions of the various bills include patients' right to sue, access to non-formulary drugs and minimum staffing levels. This is just one way patients and health care workers hope to get the attention of legislators to move on legislation introduced in the Oregon Senate last year, says OFNHP president Kathy Schmidt.
  
  
• In West Virginia, a couple of interesting health care measures have been introduced:
  
  • H 2049 requires providers to publicly disclose staffing and performance data and requires state review of the impact on public health and safety of proposed mergers and acquisitions of Medicaid providers.
    
  • H 2681 expands whistleblower protection and guarantees confidentiality to health care workers who complain in good faith to a government agency about the quality of care, services or conditions of a health care entity.