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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- A legislator who helped enact the measure allowing Intermountain Health Care to insist patients agree to arbitration now says he'll seek to have the bill repealed.
Previously, Senator Parley Hellewell had said he would seek only to change the law.
These latest wrinkles in the controversy over IHC's arbitration plan come as its opponents prepare to picket the Legislature when it convenes Monday.
The law passed last session allows health care providers to refuse to treat patients who will not sign agreements to settle any medical-care disputes through arbitration rather than malpractice lawsuits. However, it doesn't apply to those seeking emergency care.
Proponents of the law will lobby hard against Hellewell's attempt.
They argue that medical arbitration is fairer, faster and cheaper than taking malpractice issues to court.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
