ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 10, 1996 TAG: 9602120022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: General Assembly Notebook
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE, BRIAN KELLEY AND MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITERS
A General Assembly committee on Friday approved a consumer disclosure bill for managed-care health plans, but weakened a measure aimed at ensuring women unlimited access to their gynecologists.
The disclosure bill would require managed-care companies to tell patients if their doctors are paid bonuses if they limit care or provide few referrals to specialists.
Supporters - led by the Medical Society of Virginia - argue patients deserve to know if their doctor is operating under financial incentives aimed at rationing care.
"The clear light of day is all we want," Del. John Watkins, R-Chesterfield, told members of the House Committee on Corporations, Insurance and Banking.
The bill, which now goes to the full House of Delegates, would require insurers to provide the information to companies buying group policies.
The disclosure requirement is part of a high-stakes turf fight between physicians and a coalition of insurers and large employers over control of managed care.
Managed-care proponents say the system, which now accounts for an estimated 20 percent of the state's health system, is holding the line on health costs. But physicians contend that managed care puts too much emphasis on cost and not enough on quality of care.
One skirmish involves women's complaints that primary-care physicians increasingly refuse to refer them to gynecologists.
Del. Gladys Keating, D-Fairfax County, introduced a bill giving women direct access to gynecological care. "I'm speaking for the women of Virginia," she said.
The corporations committee, however, agreed to guarantee women at least one annual visit to their gynecologist and make it easier to get referrals for additional visits. But the panel amended Keating's bill to give primary care physicians a veto on subsequent referrals.
House votes to pay Honaker
The House Appropriations Committee agreed Friday to award Edward William Honaker $500,000 for 10 years spent in prison for a crime he did not commit.
The bill, which would give Honaker $150,000 in cash and a $350,000 annuity paid over 10 years, will be considered by the full House next week.
The Roanoke man was convicted of rape in 1984 but was granted an "unconditional pardon" after tests showed that his DNA did not match that of the rapist.
Motor voter bill clears Senate
The compromise motor voter law cleared the state Senate Friday after its sponsor removed its emergency status.
The change would make the law effective July 1 instead of immediately after the governor signs it. The effect of that would mean the new law, which would allow people to register to vote by mail and at some government offices, would not be in effect in time for the June Republican primary.
On Thursday, the emergency measure passed 26-18, six votes short of the four-fifths needed for such a bill. Friday, state Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County, brought the bill back, but without emergency status. It passed 23-16.
The bill now moves to the House, which is working on its own version.
College lobbies for state grants
A move to open state tuition grants to National Business College students stalled Friday in a House of Delegates committee.
The measure is not dead yet. A move to kill it ended in a 4-4 tie in the House Rules Committee, and it could come up again next week. However, the tie vote indicates its sponsor, House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, may not have the votes to push the proposal through.
Cranwell introduced a resolution Tuesday setting up a study of the business college's bid to join the tuition assistance grant program. The college would be the first for-profit school to quality for the program, which offers $1,500 grants to students at private colleges. (Gov. George Allen has proposed increasing the grants to $2,000 a year.)
A coalition of nonprofit colleges is lobbying against the move.
Drug testing measure moves forward
On a 95-5 vote, the House approved a bill that would allow parents to enroll their children in school-based random drug-testing programs.
The bill's sponsor, Del. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, said the program would give students more incentive to resist peer pressure to use illegal drugs.
The measure, which now goes to the Senate, would allow school systems to set up drug-screening programs. Students would have to agree to participate, families would pay for the tests, and the results would be made available only to the parents.
The House also voted to approve a bill that would prohibit teen-age children under the age of 16 from riding in the back of open pickup trucks on interstate highways. The measure, which Gov. George Allen vetoed last year, passed by a 78-21 margin.
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB