FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Contact: (202) 225-3943
February 24, 1998
No. HL-19
Congressman Bill Thomas (R-CA), Chairman, Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on reports regarding Medicare payment poplicies. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, March 3, 1998, in the main Committee hearing room, 1100 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 12:00 noon.
In view of the limited time available to hear witnesses, oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include Dr. Gail Wilensky, Chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MEDPAC) and Dr. William Scanlon, Director, Health Financing and Systems, U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
BACKGROUND:
On March 1, 1998, MEDPAC will issue its first report on Medicare payment policies since the merger of the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission (ProPAC) and the Physician Payment Review Commission (PPRC). For more than a decade, ProPAC and PPRC provided analysis for the Congress on hospital, physician, post-acute care, and managed care issues. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) (P.L. 105-34) contains several provisions that reflect earlier recommendations of ProPAC and PPRC.
This legislation requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop rules to expand private health plan options under the Medicare+Choice program, expand preventive benefits, and implement prospective payment systems for skilled nursing facilities, hospital outpatient departments, home health agencies, and rehabilitation services. The Subcommittee will be seeking extensive guidance from MEDPAC on many of the important details of the BBA reforms.
The BBA included a one-year delay in the implementation of the Administration's proposed rule for physician practice expense values and requested that GAO conduct a thorough review of the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA's) proposed methodology. The GAO report will address several issues including: (1) the appropriateness of resource-based methodology for practice expenses, (2) the adequacy of HCFA's data, (3) the categories of allowable costs, and (4) the methods for allocating direct and indirect expenses.
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Thomas stated: "Congress passed important reforms to make the Federal Government a more prudent purchaser of health care by offering our seniors more private plan choices, expanding preventive benefits, getting tough on fraud and abuse, and modernizing the fee-for-service part of the program. The Administration's implementation of this transformation--from a 1960s-style program to one that is market-based--will need constant monitoring. Over the next few years, we will continue to look to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission for up-to-date analysis and recommendations and to the watchful eye of the General Accounting Office for evaluation of the program. I look forward to receiving their initial reports."
FOCUS OF THE HEARING:
The hearing will focus on the MEDPAC's 1998 recommendation on Medicare payment policies and the GAO's report on physician practice expenses.
DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:
Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit at least six (6) single-space legal-size copies of their statement, along with an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in ASCII DOS Text or WordPerfect 5.1 format only, with their name, address, and hearing date noted on a label, by the close of business, Tuesday, March 17, 1998, to A.L. Singleton, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Health office, room 1136 Longworth House Office Building, at least one hour before the hearing begins.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:
Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be typed in single space on legal-size paper and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. At the same time written statements are submitted to the Committee, witnesses are now requested to submit their statements on an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in ASCII DOS Text or WordPerfect 5.1 format. Witnesses are advised that the Committee will rely on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.
2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.
4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, full address, a telephone number where the witness or the designated representative may be reached and a topical outline or summary of the comments and recommendations in the full statement. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.
The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.
The
Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with
disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please
call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event
(four business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to
special accommodation needs in general (including availability of
Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the
Committee as noted above.