THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010462
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Election '95
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
``E. . . H. . . N. . . D. . . ''
Sitting in the optometrist's office, reading the letters on an eye chart, you're probably not thinking about wheeling and dealing in the halls of the General Assembly.
But money is being spent to shape decisions about what kind of eye drops that optometrist can give.
Campaign contributions by a host of medical groups and insurance companies are being spent to help decide who takes care of your eyes or whether you can continue seeing your longtime family doctor.
As of Sept. 30, medical and insurance organizations had given $467,000 to legislative races, and that figure is expected to grow.
Medical and insurance concerns are typically big spenders in political campaigns, say lobbyists. There are always turf battles between groups of health care professionals whose duties overlap. But this year, the stakes may be a little higher, thanks to upheavals in the health care system.
Here are two representative examples of issues targeted by some of the most generous medical and insurance political action committees:
Optometrists vs. ophthalmologists
This year, as in many previous years, the people who take care of your eyes are expected to argue over what they're allowed to give you to put in there.
In fact, the two groups are giving more money to campaigns than most other medical groups, including some big insurance companies.
Ophthalmologists have degrees in medicine and added training in treatment of the eye. Optometrists have four-year graduate degrees in eye care, but not medical degrees. Both are allowed to prescribe glasses for you.
Optometrists would like some regulatory changes that would expand their powers to prescribe medicine for some common eye problems.
``About 70 percent of the population goes to an optometrist for primary vision care,'' said Bruce Keeney, lobbyist for the state optometrists' PAC, which had given $26,000 to candidates as of Sept. 30 and was expected to triple that amount by the end of the campaign. An optometrist often diagnoses the problem, then has to send the patient to his family doctor for a prescription, he said.
On the other hand are the MDs, who say the doctors are the only ones who should be dishing out these types of medication. ``Non-medical personnel should not be practicing medicine,'' said Jeff Gregson, lobbyist for the Virginia Society of Ophthalmologists, which had contributed $23,000 as of Sept. 30.
The seven-year-long debate is emblematic of a theme in health care around the country - doctors jostling for position with other providers over who is allowed to do what.
Insurance companies vs. doctors
In general, health maintenance organizations are worried about the state stepping in and putting controls on how they can do business. Doctors are hoping the General Assembly will do just that.
May Fox, executive director of the Virginia Association of HMOs: ``There are some special interests trying to seek government intervention and regulation. . . . There is an assault on managed care in the General Assembly.''
The assembly's lone doctor, Sen. Clarence A. Holland, D-Virginia Beach, will be leading the charge.
Holland, a member of the Senate's Health, Education and Welfare Committee, says he plans to introduce legislation that would require insurance companies to do business with any qualified doctor who meets their terms. That would effectively bar the kind of exclusivity arrangements that health maintenance organizations say are critical to keeping costs down.
Insurance companies say that by limiting the number of doctors they accept, they can guarantee each doctor a certain amount of business. In return, the doctors treat the company's patients at a discount.
But doctors say they are concerned about their practices and their relationships with their patients.
``It's a patient protection issue,'' said Dr. Russell D. Evett, a Norfolk physician and president of the Medical Society of Virginia, a statewide professional organization.
Evett's group is backing its arguments with a lot of money. The Medical Society's PAC had given $55,000 to legislative campaigns as of Sept. 30, more than any other medical organization or insurance company. And that doesn't count tens of thousands given by individual doctors and medical specialty organizations.
Insurance companies are countering with donations of their own. Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield's PAC alone gave $47,000, making it the second-biggest medical industry donor after the doctors.
Bolstering the insurance companies is Virginians for Health Care Solutions, a new group formed by the state Chamber of Commerce to keep insurance rates down. ILLUSTRATION: Staff graphic by The Virginian-Pilot
Top Fund-Raisers in South Hampton Roads Races
Source: Computer analysis of campaign finance records by The
Virginian-Pilot
For a copy of graphic, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: PAC ELECTION by CNB