Today’s Health Care Check-Up: — May 25, 2000
Attention Member of Congress:
Don’t Be Fooled!
Employers – large and small – can be sued under the Dingell-Norwood patients’ bill of rights.
Contrary to what you may have heard, the Dingell-Norwood bill WOULD allow employers to be sued if their employees have problems with their HMOs, a fact confirmed by numerous legal opinions:
"The so-called ‘shield’ is illusory and actually has the effect of increasing the risk that an employer or plan sponsor will face a lawsuit."
— William Schiffbauer, Esq.
"The Dingell-Norwood legislation provides employers no protection with respect to discretionary authority."
— Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP
"We suspect that supporters of the Dingell-Norwood bill commonly point to their ‘Exception for Employers and Other Plan Sponsors’ for the proposition that the bill would not allow suits against employers. Such an assertion is erroneous….Employers would be subject to state law causes of action, replete with jury trials, extra-contractual damages, and punitive damages."
— Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP
Don’t subject employers to costly new health care lawsuits.
Oppose the Dingell-Norwood
Patients’ Bill of Rights
A Patients’ Bill of Rights Shouldn’t Be a Lawyers’ Right to Bill
