Medical providers show support

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Doctors, dentists, nurses and other health care officials came to the Capitol on Monday to show their support<br>for a bill giving citizens the right to sue their HMOs.<br><br>Sen.

Monday, April 3rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Doctors, dentists, nurses and other health care officials came to the Capitol on Monday to show their support
for a bill giving citizens the right to sue their HMOs.

Sen. Brad Henry, D-Shawnee, Senate sponsor of the measure, called it an unusual and perhaps historic occasion to see doctors and lawyers agreeing on something.

"These are the people who are in the field, who see the injustices on a daily basis," Henry said at a news conference.

He disputed assertions by opponents of the bill, namely HMOs and the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce.

Henry said the proposal will not cause a flood of lawsuits, based on experience in other states, nor will it result in employers being sued.

He said the measure seeks only to hold HMOs to the same standards that doctors and other health care providers have always faced, along with traditional insurance companies.

By denying needed medical care, Henry said, the HMOs are "in effect practicing medicine."

Jimmy Durant, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Health Plans, said his group will continue to oppose the bill,
saying it will be a financial boon to lawyers.

The measure, introduced by Rep. Opio Toure, D-Oklahoma City, passed the House and a Senate committee with little opposition and
is awaiting action this week on the Senate floor.

Henry said the bill has been changed to prohibit class-action lawsuits. He also said it was reworded a bit to bolster the idea that employers, including those who are self-insured, cannot be sued.

Assertions by HMOs to the contrary, he said, "are not fair and not right." He said claims that it will lead to employers canceling insurance is "nothing more than a distortion or a scare
tactic."

The Oklahoma State Medical Association is among the several health care groups endorsing the bill. Other groups represent
nurses, dentists, osteopaths, ophthalmologists and pharmacists.