APA has called on Congress to pass three bills that would protect physicians and patients from managed care abuses and provide full parity for mental health care.

With only a few legislative weeks left in the 106th legislative session, APA urged Congress last month to stop bipartisan politics. Congress recesses in August.

APA and the American Medical Association deplored the vote last month by the House Rules Committee on temporarily postponing floor debate on the Physicians Quality Health Care Coalition Act sponsored by Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Calif.). APA attributed the delay to the enormous opposition by the health insurance industry.

The Campbell bill (H.R. 1304) amends the antitrust laws so independent physicians can collectively bargain with health plans, thus restoring some equity to the current unbalanced health plan contract situation, according to APA’s Division of Government Relations (DGR).

Campbell, who held a press conference last month denouncing the House Rules Committee action, told APA that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) had promised to move the bill to the floor by late this month.

DGR staff asked APA members to call their congressional representatives and urge them to vote for the Campbell bill, as well as call members of the House Rules Committee to voice displeasure on the vote to table the bill.

In other Capitol Hill news, DGR Director Jay Cutler joined Rep. Charles Norwood (R-Ga.) and the Patient Access to Specialty Care Coalition at a Hill press briefing last month to urge members of Congress to pass the Norwood-Dingell Patient Protection Act (H.R.2990). APA is a member of the coalition.

The House and Senate passed the bill last October, but conferees have yet to reach agreement on key differences in the two versions concerning malpractice liability, tax-free medical savings accounts, and the number of people the final bill should cover, according to the May 12 Daily Monitor.

Cutler urged conferees to support the Norwood-Dingell bill, which is designed to protect the rights of patients in managed care plans through provisions that include a point-of-service option, independent utilization review, a ban on incentives to withhold medically necessary care, and direct access to specialty care when needed.

"Our members and their patients overwhelmingly support tough standards to end managed care abuses. It’s time for Congress to act," admonished Cutler.

Cutler also reiterated APA’s support last month for legislation that provides full parity for mental health care. The bill (S. 796) was introduced by Senators Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) last year.

The Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act would expand parity for severe "biologically based" mental illnesses including schizophrenia, major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and autism, as well as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and anorexia nervosa.

The bill prohibits discriminatory limits on the number of covered hospital days and outpatient visits and eliminates the September 2001 sunset provision in the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996. The provision set a five-year duration on that legislation so that Congress could evaluate increases in costs borne by health plans, among other factors.

A hearing last month on mental health parity by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) drew attention to the need for the Domenici-Wellstone bill to become law.

The General Accounting Office reported last month that employers were skirting around the spirit of the law by imposing new restrictions on hospital and outpatient visits or increasing employee cost-sharing in their health plans (many.html).

Cutler commented to Psychiatric News, "The 1996 law was a good first step. We need now to build on that foundation by repealing the 2001 sunset date and requiring full parity so that unenlightened employers and recalcitrant insurers stop gaming the system. As we have always said, full parity is clearly affordable now."

Cutler added, "We look forward to working with Senators Domenici and Wellstone and their colleagues in the House, Reps. Roukema, Wise, and DeFazio, to end discrimination against our patients."