Is commission gimmick’ or inspired?
This spring, President Bill Clinton named an Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry. He named more than 30 participants who are charged with developing a Consumer Bill of Rights, hoped to ensure patients receive certain privileges now withheld. Employer- sponsored plans of large companies are exempt from state legislation that ensures patients access to specialists and certain procedures.
The bill would ban "gag rules," freeing doctors to talk with patients about all their medical options. They would "not be rewarded for withholding care," and patients would be able to appeal decisions denying coverage.
Detractors term the commission "a politically inspired gimmick." Others, including the American Health Quality Association in Washington, DC, applaud it. The secretaries of labor and health and human services chair the group, and it includes 32 other participants, among them Beverly L. Malone, PhD, RN, president of the American Nurses Association in Washington, DC; Donald M. Berwick, MD, president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston; consumers, business representatives, policy experts, and insurers.
Following are names and telephone numbers of sources quoted in this issue:
• Kathleen Claussen, RN, nurse practitioner, occupational health clinic, University Hospital, Albuquerque, NM. Telephone: (505) 272-2517.
•Deborah McGuire, RN-C, nurse practitioner and certified occupational health nurse specialist , manager of employee occupational health services, Clarian Health (Methodist Hospital campus), Indianapolis. Telephone: (317) 929-6212.
• Janice Beene, MPH, senior consultant for infection control at Lovelace Health Systems in Albuquerque, NM. Telephone: (505) 232-1936.
• Irene Foster Mount, RN, MSN, CPHQ director of performance improvement at Columbia Hospital for Women, Washington, DC. Telephone: (202) 293-5265.
• Virginia Printz, RN-C, MSN, education nurse specialist, Lovelace Health Systems, Albuquerque, NM. Telephone: (505) 262-7762.
• Carole H. Patterson, RN, deputy director, department of standards, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Oakbrook Terrace, IL. Telephone: (630) 792-5000.
• Mel Stratmeyer, PhD, chief of the health sciences, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD. Telephone: (301) 443-7209.
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