Patients Rights

President Clinton plans to sign a sweeping executive order today to largely bring all federally administered health programs, which serve 85 million Americans, into compliance with a set of minimum standards for patient care by next year, according to administration officials. The order would guarantee certain "patients' rights" to the roughly 1 in 3 Americans covered by those programs.

The prospects for patients' rights legislation improved Tuesday as the White House sent new signals that efforts to modify the measure are close to winning President Bush's support. Citing the progress of negotiations with the bill's sponsors, the White House adopted a new posture on legislation that Bush previously has threatened to veto. "The nation is on a threshold of having a patients' bill of rights that can be signed into law," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

A sweeping patients' rights bill gained momentum Tuesday as Senate Democrats won critical votes over the measure's foes and neared compromise on key sticking points. Amid these signs pointing toward Senate passage of the bill, President Bush stepped up his involvement in the debate.

Sponsors of sweeping patients' rights legislation spurned concessions from the White House on Friday, dimming prospects for a compromise on the divisive measure before the August congressional break. Backers of the bill said they found a long list of flaws with a proposal made Thursday by President Bush aimed at producing a compromise on disputed provisions that would greatly expand patients' ability to sue their health plans. "We didn't reject it," said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.).

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers announced agreement Thursday on a managed care bill that includes strong patients' rights provisions, setting the stage for a showdown on the issue when Congress returns to Washington in September. The consensus bill was crafted by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), a senior member of the Democratic caucus, and Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.

Senators were shouting. Senators were waving their arms. Yet the casual listener to the floor debate on giving more leverage to patients in dealing with their managed health-care plans could get the impression that the two parties are extremely close. Lawmakers are due to finish work on the bill today. On Wednesday, each side promised to protect women from being forced out of the hospital within a day of having a mastectomy. They both pledged more access to emergency rooms.

A united front of high-level Democrats will gather at the White House today to challenge the Republican congressional leadership to pass legislation ensuring health care rights for consumers in the era of managed care. President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.

In a victory for abortion rights advocates, the Supreme Court said Thursday that judges and lawmakers can create a "buffer zone" around an abortion clinic and prevent protesters from picketing and chanting on the street and sidewalks in front of the facility. This limited ban on peaceful protest does not violate the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech, the court ruled on a 6-3 vote, as long as it is deemed necessary to preserve the patient's right to freely enter a clinic.

Workers at a private psychiatric facility in Sylmar violated patients' privacy, searched their rooms without permission, took money and personal property and otherwise treated them with disrespect, according to a county report released Friday. The report on Foothill Health and Rehabilitation Center was released one day after the county Department of Mental Health decided not to renew its contract with Foothill and its adjacent sister facility, Sylmar Health and Rehabilitation Center.