A Brief Overview of Major Features of Pending Patient Protection Legislation: House and Senate Versions of H.R. 2990
During the 1999 legislative year, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed legislation addressing patient protections under health care plans. The purpose of this brief overview is to highlight in broad terms the key similarities and differences between the bills in four general areas: scope of coverage; patient protections; benefit claims and appeals procedures; and ERISA preemption of state laws and health plan liability (including expanded patients’ rights to sue and remedies). This brief comparison does not address certain other provisions contained in the bills (including those relating to HealthMarts and Association Health Plans found only in the House bill) or their various revenue-related proposals.