Health office set up to help

Thursday, May 27, 1999 | 2:59 a.m.

The Assembly, with Gov. Kenny Guinn's approval, passed a measure creating the state's Office for Consumer Health Assistance.

"This is a great opportunity to offer help to patients who are struggling with their health insurance," Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley said as the plan was endorsed Wednesday.

Earlier in the session, Buckley, D-Las Vegas, introduced AB310, which would have created a health care ombudsman in the attorney general's office. But that bill languished in committee largely as a result of stiff opposition from health insurers.

Obviously, "the funding source was a major concern," said Marie Soldo, executive vice president of government affairs for Sierra Health Services, Nevada's largest health insurer.

Health insurers also argued the office was unnecessary to deal with the scope of the problem.

Nevada's seven largest health insurers received 719,905 calls from consumers in 1998, according to figures from the Nevada Association of Hospitals and Health Plans. Of those, 3,750 were appeals of coverage decisions. Out of those 2,084 were overturned in favor of the patient, Soldo said.

At most, she said a medical professional should be added to the staff of the Insurance Division to help health consumers.

Buckley was adamant the ombudsman office not be in the Insurance Division, and put her plan into the governor's proposal to privatize the State Industrial Insurance System when that measure landed in the Commerce and Labor Committee, which she chairs.

Negotiations created the compromise passed as part of the industrial insurance bill, SB37.

The office will have, in addition to the director, five staff members dedicated to assisting injured workers and four to help other health consumers.

Guinn didn't want to put the office under the attorney general for fear it would end up churning out litigation against health insurers at the expense of taxpayers, said Pete Ernaut, the governor's chief of staff.

The office will be funded mostly with $250,000 from the state general fund.