News in brief - June 27, 2005

Patient safety push is on - Millions of Americans are underinsured, study finds

Patient safety push is on

Patient safety legislation has finally gained some traction in the House, months after the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee approved its version of the bill.

Rep. Nathan Deal (R, Ga.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, said he would push for a bipartisan agreement by August. His announcement came after he listened to testimony on the need for an error-reporting system that provides physicians and hospitals with safeguards against the information being used in medical liability cases.

"Health care errors would be prevented by transforming the existing culture of blame, which suppresses information about errors, into a culture of safety, which focuses on sharing information in order to prevent future errors," said AMA Trustee Cyril M. Hetsko, MD. Along with 128 other health organizations, the AMA recently sent a letter to Congress urging passage of patient safety legislation.

Millions of Americans are underinsured, study finds

Sixteen million Americans have health insurance but still have medical bills they cannot afford to pay, says a recent Web article published by the journal Health Affairs.

The underinsured experience similar barriers to receiving medical services as the 45 million Americans without any health insurance, such as forgoing needed physician visits or medications, according to the survey of 4,000 adults by Commonwealth Fund researchers.

Current trends in rising premiums, larger deductibles and more cost-sharing are aggravating the problem, the study found.

"Unless this country starts to pay attention to health insurance benefits design, it is going to be harder to distinguish the insured from the uninsured," said fund President Karen Davis.