Frank Pallone: “Could I ask the gentleman this? The bottom line is that if we have this liability provision, and the HMOs know that they…”

“Could I ask the gentleman this? The bottom line is that if we have this liability provision, and the HMOs know that they could be liable, I would think the consequence would be that they would be a lot more careful about what they deny and what they do. And so, therefore, the situations where they would be liable for malpractice or making the wrong decisions would decrease and their costs probably would not be that great. So a lot of this is just preventive. A lot of the things that we are suggesting here just make for a better system in general and create prevention on the part of the HMO. And so I think that that is the reason why ultimately the cost is not really going to go up.”