Subject: Ethics Complaint Cites Frist's Work On Medical Malpractice
Legislation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55869-2004Apr6.html

Ethics Complaint Cites Frist's Work On Medical Malpractice Legislation

By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 7, 2004; Page A05

A consumer rights foundation has asked the Senate ethics committee to
investigate whether Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) improperly promoted
legislation to limit medical malpractice awards while maintaining what it
called "personal and financial ties" to a large hospital chain with a
malpractice insurance subsidiary.

The complaint was filed late Monday by the Foundation for Taxpayer &
Consumer Rights of Santa Monica, Calif., which has a long history of
opposing curbs on malpractice litigation. It was promptly circulated around
Washington by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which also
questioned what it described as a potential conflict of interest on Frist's
part.

The ethics committee declined to comment on the complaint. Frist spokeswoman
Amy Call described the complaint as a "political exercise." She said the
Senate leader has received "numerous rulings from the ethics committee"
noting that its rules did not bar him from working on health issues because
of his personal and family finances.

At the center of the controversy is the Hospital Corporation of America
(HCA), the nation's largest for-profit hospital company, which has been run
primarily by Frist's father, Thomas Frist, and brother, Thomas Frist Jr.

The senator, who was a heart transplant surgeon before he was elected to the
Senate in 1995, was never employed by the company or any of its hospitals,
but his HCA stock holdings constituted a major share of his considerable
wealth. Frist valued his HCA holdings at more than $13 million when he first
ran for the Senate. After the election, he put them in a blind trust, out of
his control. Recent financial disclosure statements value the blind trusts
for Frist and his family at many millions of dollars.

In the Senate, Frist has championed a series of health care-related causes,
including Medicare legislation last year and, more recently, a bill backed
by most Republicans that would cap damage awards in medical malpractice
suits against doctors, hospitals and makers of medical devices. Bills to
limit all such damages and a narrower measure to limit them for
obstetricians and gynecologists were blocked by Democratic-led filibusters.
The Senate will vote today on another targeted measure to limit damages
involving suits against both OB-GYNs and emergency room personnel. Democrats
say they have the votes to prevail on that bill, too.

In its letter to the ethics panel, the consumer rights foundation noted that
Health Care Indemnity, which it described as a wholly owned subsidiary of
HCA, is the nation's sixth-largest medical malpractice insurance company,
with $260 million in premiums annually.

"We believe this conflict should disqualify Senator Frist from involvement
in any legislation concerning liability limits benefiting hospitals and
malpractice insurers, and can no longer be overlooked," Carmen Balber, the
foundation's consumer advocate, said in the letter.

Recent contributions of HCA stock to family trusts underscore the importance
of the company to the family's fortune, which cannot be disguised by the
"blind" nature of the trusts, she added.

While acknowledging the previous ethics committee rulings in Frist's favor,
Balber said the senator's "current involvement in the medical malpractice
debate rises beyond the level of general concern for health issues to
specific advocacy for his family's company."

In two earlier letters, released by Frist's office, the ethics panel noted
that Frist's family does not own anything approaching a controlling interest
in HCA and found no reason to bar Frist from involvement with health care
issues in the Senate. But it also warned that "appearances of a conflict of
interest" need to be evaluated in dealing with specific bills.

Frist was motivated to get involved in the malpractice debate because, "as a
doctor, he has seen firsthand the damage that soaring malpractice rates can
have on patients and patient care," according to Call, his spokeswoman.
"Anybody who knows Bill Frist knows he is first and foremost an ethical
person, and he is motivated by creating good policy and providing good
patient care," she added.


© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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