Orrin Hatch: “this is an important bill. I want to see a Patients' Bill of Rights signed into law, but I am afraid some of my…”

“this is an important bill. I want to see a Patients' Bill of Rights signed into law, but I am afraid some of my colleagues here, on the other side of the aisle, have rejected any efforts to move the reasonable Frist-Breaux-Jeffords bipartisan, or I should say tri-partisan bill. They have put lawyers and litigation ahead of patients and medical care. I would like to say a few words on the liability provisions of this legislation. We all recognize that the liability provisions of this legislation are critical. These elements are key to providing patients with quality health care instead of extended court time. When I refer to the liability provisions, of course I am talking about a family of issues, including: exhaustion of appeals, employer liability, caps on damages, and class action lawsuits. Each of these is important, and indeed critical to patient care and health care delivery, and needs to be addressed and corrected before the President can sign a bill. With regard to the provision on exhaustion of appeals, I believe the Thompson amendment, which we just approved is certainly a big improvement over the McCain-Kennedy language. The amendment will make certain that no judicial proceedings commence prior to patients exhausting all of the internal and external review mechanisms. This is purely a common sense amendment, which properly maintains emphasis on speedy resolution of patient problems without lengthy and costly court proceedings.”