Rep. TOM CAMPBELL (R-Roy)
2nd LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT
Olympia office: 334 John L. O'Brien Building
PO Box 40600 Olympia, WA 98504-0600
Office: (360) 786-7912

For immediate release: 4/14/2007

April 14, 20007

Rep. Campbell's comment on the Senate's failure to act on health care provider disciplinary reform

All our remaining health care provider disciplinary reform measures in both House Bills 1300 and 1993 have died on the Senate calendar at yesterday's 5:00 p.m. cut-off. That's too bad because these are critical issues for every medical consumer in the state. These measures won strong bi-partisan support from the House and were sent to the Senate with high expectations that these health care problems would be corrected.

We had the support of the Senate Health Committee Chair Sen. Karen Keiser (D) and Ranking Republican, Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R), on disciplinary reform. They both signed on to pass measures to protect medical consumers from those health care providers -- registered by the state - who have demonstrated negligence, incompetence and even criminal actions with patients and will continue to do so in the future..

Unfortunately, these vital health care issues just didn't get the needed priority from Senate leadership. The Washington State Medical Association was totally ineffective in opposition effort and was not a serious obstacle to passage, though they certainly tried to be. But, the Senate leadership had the opportunity to make a difference on this matter, but just didn't step forward.

I am saddened that the lack of action by the Senate will no doubt cause many more patients to be deceived, sexually abused, defrauded and otherwise mistreated. I am embarrassed that this legislature has failed to protect our citizens. I fear  lives will be shattered that didn't have to  because 'business as usual' in health care provider discipline still does not meet the highest standard had they taken the time to pass these measures.

I am determined to continue next January to pass legislation on health care provider discipline. And also on the current policy that allows people with zero-training to pay $40 and 'presto,' they become 'registered counselors.' House Bill 1993 would have established a program of standards for counselors.

It appears in the Senate that health consumer protection is not a priority. One has to only look at the parade of measures that did pass on cutoff day to know that someone in the upper chamber had a serious lapse of concentration.

To give just a few examples of measures that had a higher priority than disciplinary reform for health care providers, consider these three pieces that received last minute Senate approval, Harvesting Geoduck Clams, Massage Therapy Definition and Special Parking Privileges. All these measures passed the Senate in the final hours before cutoff.

 I will be back again next year with legislation again to deal with this critical issue of ensuring those in our state who require health care the highest standard for medical health care providers.

Rep. Tom Campbell (R-2nd District)

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Contact: Rep. Tom Campbell at (360) 786-7912 or campbell.tom@leg.wa.gov