10
University Daily Kansan
From Page One
Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1985
Med Center
Continued from p. 1
Representatives resulted in a bill that nobody was happy with.
"That's not a piece of legislation I'm very proud of or the legislative body is very proud of" he said.
When the bill reached the House near the end of the session, Winter said, problems began.
"We passed the bill to the House with 10 days left," he said. "They then sat on it, delayed it and sent it back to us with one day left."
Rep. Rochelle Chronister, R-Neodesha, said the house worked on the bill as fast as it could, but the interests of the Kansas Medical Society had to be kept in mind. Chronister was the bill's sponsor in the House.
She said the Kansas Medical Society was worried that, because of the Senate's original bill, the Med Center would stop paying into the State Health Care Stabilization Fund, which supplements'malpractice insurance policies of physicians in Kansas.
In an April memo to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Ron Todd, assistant commissioner of the Kansas Insurance Department, said the fund would lose $737,000 a year beginning July 1.
Chronien said this was why the bill was changed in the House.
State Rep. David Heinemann, R-Garden City, said the bill prompted immediate backlash from the community when it came out of the Senate.
"The major concern was of the state pulling out. There would be fewer dollars for the fund." he said.
With less money in the fund, Heinemann said, state physicians' liability would increase.
Chronister said, "Neither side was happy with what it was. We were trying to find a piece of legislation that would satisfy everyone."
The changed bill was then sent back to the Senate for its approval.
Law causes confusion
Winter said that the 90th day of the session, the last legal day legislators may meet, was rapidly approaching when the House returned the bill.
"We had no practical choice," he said. "The House just would not flat accept our version. It was either accept our version or come up with $800,000, and we couldn't get $800,000 because there wasn't any money in the budget for it."
Winter said the Senate's version of the bill would have saved $800,000 in insurance that could have been used
Two legislators speak
'This is one of those sausages that doesn't taste very good once it's on the plate.'
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence
'There was a great deal of confusion in the House over the bill.'
State Rep. Jessie Branson,
D-Lawrence
in educational areas of the Med Center.
"There are two things you don't want to see being made," he said. "Sausages and laws. This is one of those sausages that doesn't taste very good once it's on the plate."
State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, said she also liked the bill as it left the Senate.
Branson said she was not happy with the final version of the bill. She said she did not think confusion over the bill had been resolved.
"It itted out to be a very good bill," she said.
"I am very concerned about the bill as far as the changes that were made," she said. "There was a great
After the bill was passed, Med Center administrators asked Fletcher Bell, state insurance commissioner, to request an opinion from Attorney General Robert Stephan about which activities the residents had to be covered for.
deal of confusion in the House over the bill."
In their request for a statement, Med Center administrators said they wanted to limit the Med Center's liability.
The contract that the residents signed with the Med Center said residents could work only in areas approved by the Med Center. Von Ende said this limited the Med Center's liability.
In a July 1 opinion, Stephan said the Med Center must provide insurance to cover its residents 24 hours a day.
D. Kay Clawson, executive vice chancellor of the Med Center, said he realized that would create a problem for the residents because it would deny some of them the chance to supplement their income.
"Many of our young people are in tremendous debt," Clawson said. "Moonlighting has helped them in the past."
At the time the bill was passed, Southard said, nobody really knew what the law would do. The state, he said, now is left with a law that is too pleased with. The Legislation can keep the law or repeal it.
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But Mike Hayden, R-Attwood and speaker of the House, said the law would be difficult to repeal because of interests of the Kansas Medical Society — interests that caused the earlier compromise.
PHOTO
And, said Derenda Mitchell, attorney for the State Health Care Stabilization Fund, until the law is
repealed, the Med Center will be left without sufficient funds to defend residents or settle malpractice claims.
"When the Medical Center took on the responsibility of insuring its residents," she said, "it was undertaking a huge responsibility. It was embarking upon the insurance field."
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