Greg Ganske: “in my remaining time I want to speak a little bit about patient protection legislation. We have been working on this…”

“in my remaining time I want to speak a little bit about patient protection legislation. We have been working on this issue for 5 years now. Back in 1995 when I first came to Congress, reports came out about how HMOs were writing contracts that had gag clauses in them, in which they basically said that before a physician could say to the patient what their treatment options were they first had to get an okay from the company. Now think about that for a minute. Let us say that a woman with a lump in her breast goes in to see her doctor. The doctor takes her history, examines her, and knows that there are three treatment options for this lady; but one of them may be more expensive than the other and because he has this gag rule written into his HMO contract he has to say, excuse me, ma'am; leaves the room goes to a telephone; gets on the phone, dials a 1-800 number and says, Mrs. So and So has a lump in her breast. She has three treatment options. Can I tell her about them? I firmly believe that patient has the right to know all her treatment options and that an HMO should not censor her physician. That is a blow right to the patient/doctor relationship. That should be outlawed. So I wrote a bill in 1995 called the Patient Right to Know Act. I went out and I obtained 285 bipartisan cosponsors and, Mr. Speaker, I could not get that bipartisan bill to the floor, which would have passed with over 400 votes.…”