The employers are worried that the liability provisions of the House version of the bill in question could force many small businesses to drop coverage for their employees.

      "If this bill goes through, I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop providing insurance," said Fred Lopez, who owns a Glendale, California, graphics firm that employs 10 people. "Most people I talk to will, in fact, drop their insurance" if employers could be sued, said Lopez, speaking at an event sponsored by the Business Roundtable.

      "We are asking Congress to take a scalpel to the employer liability provisions of the Patients' Bill of Rights," said Ken Quartermain, president of the Arizona Rock Products Association.

      Sponsors of the House bill insist that under their measure, employers could not be held liable for care denials, unless the employer actually made the specific coverage decision. But several legal analyses commissioned by business groups opposed to the bill have argued that may not be the case.

      "There is no way to 'carve out' employers who are self-insured," said Johanna Schneider of the Business Roundtable.

      Meanwhile, House and Senate conferees on the measure have not yet reached the divisive lawsuit issue. Instead, staff have spent the past several days unsuccessfully trying to reach agreement on such "patient protection" issues as whether women should be guaranteed access without going through a gatekeeper to ob/gyn's, and whether and to what extent health plans should be required to pay for out-of-network emergency room care.

      Conferees are scheduled to meet again Thursday. Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., chairman of the conference, has set a March 31 deadline for completion of the negotiations.

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