Political Quotes

“What our intention is in our bill is to provide an objective third party who chooses who the group is, who contracts and actually selects the review panel, and then chooses the review panel. The Senator will recall, in previous bills that have been talked about and debated in this Senate Chamber, that has been one of the mechanisms used so that you do not have the HMO actually involved in contracting either with the group that is choosing the review panel--I think it is important to talk about both because they are both involved--or the review panel itself. As a practical matter, the HMO is not likely to be choosing the actual review panel because much more likely, in real life terms, as the Senator knows, they would contract with a group that would choose the review panel. What we want, and is the whole intention of our bill--and we think this is a very significant difference between the bills--is we do not want the HMOs--other than the fact that the HMO, I think in both bills, is responsible for the cost--we do not want the HMOs being able to have control either over the group that chooses the review panel or over the review panel itself.”