Declarations
Delay tactic
“I am fully aware that the costs of complying with Real ID are enormous and overly burdensome to states, including Maine. I will be introducing this legislation so that we can pause and take a more measured approach to Real ID.”
U.S. Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, calling for a delay in the federal homeland security law known as the Real ID Act. States currently have until the spring of 2008 to comply with what they say will be a costly program setting a national standard for driver’s licenses and requiring states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases. Last month, with bipartisan support, Maine lawmakers adopted a first-of-its-kind resolution in opposition to the federal law. Since then, concerns have been raised in other states.
Out of patience
“Everybody involved in the health care system wants patients to be safe and to receive proper care when they’re in the hospital. I’m sure we can all agree that all hospitals in Rhode Island should be doing everything they can to reduce mistakes, hospital-acquired infections and medication errors so every patient can leave the hospital healthier than when he or she arrived.”
Rhode Island Sen. Charles J. Levesque (D-Dist. 11, Portsmouth, Bristol), who has introduced legislation aimed at reducing medical errors in hospitals in his state. His Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction Act (2007-S 0650) would require all hospitals in Rhode Island to participate in a program to increase patient safety. The act would also allow the Department of Human Services to use hospitals’ patient safety records to determine reimbursement rates.
Kiss and make up
“It’s time to give people their money back and kiss and make up.”
William Spingler after his fellow Radnor Township, Pa., commissioners voted unanimously to end a plan to bill out-of-town motorists involved in traffic accidents for police services. The township had hired Cost Recovery Corp. of Ohio in April to carry out the program to raise money for the police force. The fees were supposed to be recovered from insurance companies, but if they did not pay the company was seeking to collect from motorists. Spingler said CRC was too aggressive in its collection practices.
Credit bill
“The use of credit scores in setting insurance rates is unfair and unnecessary. Credit reports are notoriously filled with errors and the use of credit scores to set insurance rates has been shown to have a disproportionate effect on minorities. And insurance companies have plenty of tools to evaluate each of us without using credit scores.”
Delaware Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn as he and legislators unveiled legislation to ban all use of credit scores in setting auto and homeowner insurance rates in the state. In 2006, a similar bill was amended to ban use of credit scores only on auto and homeowner insurance policy renewals and passed the Senate, but was not brought up for a vote in the House of Representatives.