Patients’ Rights Talks Break Down

Meanwhile, long-running negotiations between the White House and Senate leaders over “patients’ rights”-based health insurance policy reform have broken down, making action on that idea unlikely this year as well. Depending on how such legislation was structured, it could affect Federal Employees Health Benefits program enrollees even though FEHB already has an administratively ordered patients’ rights package. For example, one major topic has been the right to sue health carriers for denials of coverage. Also, some members of Congress had been looking to a patients’ rights bill as a possible vehicle for creating “medical savings account”-based plans in the FEHB. Such plans offer low premiums and high deductibles, coupled with tax-favored savings accounts available to be used for out-of-pocket costs. Federal employee and retiree groups generally oppose that concept, fearing such plans would draw off relatively healthy enrollees, forcing up premiums in other plans.