DATE: Wednesday, September 10, 1997         TAG: 9709100500

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   59 lines

GILMORE CALLS FOR END TO ``DRIVE-THROUGH'' BREAST CANCER SURGERY

Insurance companies should be required to pay for a two-day hospital stay for breast cancer surgery patients and should be barred from interfering in treatment decisions, Republican candidate for governor Jim Gilmore said Tuesday.

Gilmore called for laws to stop insurers from penalizing doctors who recommend more than two days of post-operative breast cancer care.

``We will prohibit drive-through mastectomies,'' he said. ``We should have legislated a minimum 48 hours of care in a hospital bed.''

His plan, which he called ``Women's Right to Cancer Care,'' cited a 1997 Bureau of Insurance report in which some insurance companies reported average patient hospital stays as short as 1.4 days.

Doctors associated with the American Cancer Society say that is not long enough for most patients' safety.

Gilmore accused insurance companies of sending women home within hours and refusing to pay for needed care. He blamed insurers for medical complications some of those women have developed.

``When they (patients) leave the hospital should be between the patient and the doctor . . . and no one else,'' he said.

Gilmore's Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, said he already has given a number of speeches on the issue. ``Ending drive-by mastectomies is the right thing to do,'' Beyer said during a campaign stop in Chesapeake. ``It sounds like one of the things in this campaign that we agree on.''

But one insurance company spokeswoman said the candidates' charges are unfair and that a legal hospitalization minimum is not needed. ``We look to the physician and his judgment when decisions are made about how long women will stay,'' said Brooke Taylor of Richmond-based Trigon. ``I don't see anything in (Gilmore's plan) that we're not doing already. Our primary concern is with the health and well-being of our members.''

More than 4,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in Virginia this year, according to the American Cancer Society. About 1,100 of those will die of the disease.

During Gilmore's speech Tuesday at the Medical College of Virginia's Massey Cancer Center, the candidate was flanked by his wife, Roxane, a cancer survivor, as well as a dozen women who have survived breast cancer surgery.

``Forty-eight hours? That's a beginning. It's a good first step,'' said Bev Graeber, a Republican House of Delegates candidate from Norfolk who had breast cancer 16 years ago. After two days, ``you're barely out of anesthesia,'' Graeber said. ``You need to talk to people. . . . You need support.''

Gilmore said he would try to coordinate his legislation with a similar House bill proposed by Del. Philip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News. MEMO: ALSO

DON BEYER CRITICIZES STATE POLICIES ON THE ENVIRONMENT

A1 ILLUSTRATION: Republican candidate for governor Jim Gilmore says

insurance companies should be barred from interfering in treatment

decisions. KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE GUBERNATORIAL RACE

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