The Proposed Patients' Bill of Rights: The Case of the Missing Equal Protection Clause

Abstract:     
Congress is considering passing a patients' bill of rights. The proposed reform provides for appeals of disagreements between managed care organizations and patients over treatment decisions and also ensures access to specialists and emergency rooms. These reforms place a heavy emphasis on regulating managed care groups by assigning due process rights to patients of privately funded health plans. This article offers a vision of an alternative reform based on principles of both equality and due process. Empirical research demonstrates that although managed care systems appear to provide roughly adequate health care for the general public, they may not be providing equal treatment for the poor and elderly. Furthermore, empirical research also indicates that race and ethnicity accounts for the largest disparities in treatments. This article argues that the patients' bill of rights should be revised to safeguard the rights of more patients by extending the same protections to Medicaid managed care programs. Furthermore, the reforms should encourage health care providers to offer all patients treatment approaches consistent with national standards of medical care. Finally, the principle of equality in a patients' bill of rights should emphasize the importance of encouraging managed care organizations to integrate their care with local and state agencies to promote public health.

Accepted Paper Series