Opening Statement of the Hon. Jim Ramstad, a Representative in Congress from the State of Minnesota

Hearing on Medicare Reform: Bringing Regulatory Relief to Beneficiaries and Providers

March 15, 2001

In my meetings with health care providers in Minnesota, I hear every time about the crushing paperwork burden imposed on providers by HCFA. Why should duplicative documents and redundant forms be necessary to treat patients and obtain reimbursements?

Too many providers are spending too much time struggling with paperwork rather than treating patients. In my view, it is time to introduce a little common sense into the HCFA bureaucracy. Clearly, 130,000 pages of rules and regulations are excessive and must be streamlined.

Too often, providers are considered guilty until proven innocent and it seems that HCFA is more interested in enforcing arcane regulations than in patient care.

Our health care dollars should be spent on care not so heavily on administration. A hospital or doctor's office should spend their scarce resources on patients not on excessive paperwork.

I also believe that this unreasonable regulatory burden is delaying and even denying new technologies to seniors. This is simply unacceptable.

I certainly believe it is a necessary to have a reasonable level of documentation to prevent fraud and improve patient care. However, I believe it is time for HCFA to start focusing on working with the health care industry in a collaborative way, rather than working against honest providers in an adversarial way.

Of course, this requires a careful balancing act and I hope today's hearing will begin to shed light on this subject.

Thanks again, Madam Chairwoman for calling this important hearing. I look forward to today's testimony.