ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE AND ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITERS
General Assembly members, faced with a no-win choice between two powerful coalitions, won a reprieve Tuesday when the two sides agreed to a one-year study of the future of managed health care.
Lawmakers, however, are still in the thick of various health issues, including how often HMOs allow women to visit their gynecologists and whether insurance companies can prohibit doctors from telling patients about all available treatment options.
A House of Delegates panel is scheduled to vote on these issues this week.
Advocates, led by insurance companies and big business, say managed care has stemmed annual double-digit increases for health insurance premiums. Critics, led by physicians, say concentrating on costs lowers the quality of care.
The two sides agreed to a one-year legislative study of the most controversial proposal: Physicians want insurers to offer patients an affordable option of seeing doctors outside the managed care network.
Insurance companies say the ``point of service'' option would defeat the purpose of coordinated health care and run up costs.
On their second day of trying, Virginia's 40 state senators found a way Tuesday to deal with the first tie vote of the evenly divided Senate: They nullified it, hoping such a thing won't happen again.
The constitutional dilemma first surfaced Monday. A bill that would amend the state Constitution to let voters petition to put laws to referendum was met with a 20-20 vote. Democrats and Republicans voted on both sides, but the tally gave Republicans a shudder when Lt. Gov. Don Beyer added a nay - the 41st vote.
If Beyer, a Democrat, can break a tie, he could keep the Senate's 20 Republicans from having a say in the budget, judicial appointments and other legislative whoppers, GOP leaders feared.
So Tuesday, Republicans amended the bill into oblivion. They changed it to require signatures from 35 percent of the state's registered voters. That would mean signatures from more than 1 million voters. Charles Robb didn't get that many votes in the last U.S. Senate election. The change was so ridiculous, the bill's sponsor simply withdrew it.
Republicans offered an opinion from the attorney general saying Beyer couldn't break such ties, and Democrats quoted constitutional experts saying he could. But both were happy to remove what could be this year's best chance at forcing the issue.
``I read somewhere that there are over 200,000 unnecessary words in the English language,'' said Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville. ``And I believe on this particular bill I've heard them all.''
The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill promoting regional cooperation among local governments, but without the support of three Hampton Roads lawmakers concerned that their districts could get slighted.
Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, and two Republicans from Virginia Beach, Sens. Ed Schrock and Kenneth Stolle, were the only senators to oppose the Urban Partnership proposal. It passed the Senate 37-3, and still must be considered by the House of Delegates.
The bill is designed to decrease economic disparity among urban, suburban and rural localities by promoting revenue sharing and other cooperative agreements.
The House of Delegates spent nearly an hour debating an Allen administration practice of barring reporters from meeting with inmates in state correctional facilities.
Opponents of the policy argued that more open media access would be helpful in revealing problems in prisons, the fastest-growing segment of state government.
``We don't really want to know this stuff,'' said Del. Jay DeBoer, D-Petersburg. ``The public doesn't really want to know it either, but they deserve to know.''
Allen supporters warned that inmates would disrupt prisons with frequent news conferences, and wardens would lose control over their facilities.
At issue is a policy in which reporters who want to interview inmates in person must go through Corrections Director Ron Angelone, who rejects most requests for unspecified security concerns.
The House gave mixed guidance to Angelone in two sharply divided votes.
First, the House voted 51-48 to require Angelone to adopt ``reasonable'' access rules and to prevent him from prohibiting such visits. Then, the House voted 50-47 to leave open the option for Angelone to prohibit inmates from meeting with reporters.
A final vote on the bill is scheduled today.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB