Doctor, Lawyer at Center of the Patients’ Rights Debate
Newspapers this week examine how the professional backgrounds of Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), a former trial lawyer and co-sponsor of the patients' rights bill (S 283) currently being debated in the Senate, and Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a former heart surgeon and sponsor of a competing measure (S 889), influenced their views on the issue and informed their differences over how extensive a right to sue should be in a patients' rights bill. The New York Times reports that patients' rights is an issue "tailor-made" for Edwards, a "48-year-old former plaintiffs' lawyer whose small firm in Raleigh gained renown" for its legal victories. While Edwards said his firm only once represented a patient in a denial of care case against a health plan, he "regularly" dealt with "other kinds of insurance companies," of which he said, "I know the way they function. They function on the bottom line. That's all they care about. And they respond when they feel legally they have a responsibility. Otherwise, they don't." Accordingly, Edwards' bill contains a much broader right for patients to sue health plans with greater avenues for lawsuits and higher caps on damages compared to Frist's bill. Responding to criticism that his bill would lead to "runaway juries" and "open the floodgates for costly lawsuits," Edwards said, "If you don't trust juries, you shouldn't trust voters. They're the same people" (Toner, New York Times, 6/27). USA Today reports that Edwards' background has made him a "target" of opponents to his bill "who accuse lawyers of trying to carve a lucrative market out of the health insurance industry." Critics also point out that trial lawyers "have been a major financial contributor to the Democratic Party" (Welch, USA Today, 6/27).
A Doctors' Point of View
Frist, however, "brings a very different set of experiences to the debate," having gained a first-hand look at the shift of American health care toward managed care. Like Edwards, he believes that managed care companies often end up "just looking at the bottom line." However, Frist is concerned about the rising number of malpractice suits and their effect on doctors. "It results in defensive medicine, getting more tests than necessary, changing the practice of medicine toward more paperwork." Instead, Frist favors a "very strong and responsive" review system for patients with a "limited" right to sue in federal court (Toner, New York Times, 6/28). USA Today reports that Frist, "who still puts an 'M.D.' at the end of his Senate signature," is "at odds with many other physicians" and that Frist's "financial and political ties are more complicated than his background as a doctor." In 1969, Frist's father and brother founded what is today "one of the nation's largest and most troubled" hospital chains -- HCA-The Healthcare Co. Frist holds stock in a blind trust for the company, which "gets 37% of its revenue from managed care companies." Peter Eisner, managing director of the Center for Public Integrity "says that neither senator has a clear conflict of interest" but that "both should be cautious in advancing positions that could help their interests," USA Today reports (USA Today, 6/27).
