 |
|
|
SUBCOMMITTEES: Privacy, Copyright, and Permission to Link Statement |
Committee on Ways and Means For Immediate Release Bipartisan Progress Achieved on Medicare--House Unanimously Passes Regulatory and Contracting Reform Bill WASHINGTON –The Medicare Regulatory and Contracting Reform Act of 2001 (H.R. 3391), sponsored by Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health Chairman Nancy Johnson (R-CT) and Ranking Member Pete Stark (D-CA), passed unanimously last night by a vote of 408-0. “Physicians, home health providers, hospitals and nursing homes are overwhelmed with paperwork. They are spending needless hours filling out unnecessary and confusing forms,” said Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas. “This bill would streamline provider interactions with a complex bureaucracy and provide some certainty and sanity in a regulatory system not exactly well known for either quality.” “Medicare's irrational paperwork requirements and complex regulatory demands are yanking the heart out of our senior’s health care system. It forces doctors and nurses to put paperwork before patients,” Johnson said. The legislation grows out of great frustration by providers around the country who feel that the Medicare bureaucracy is a regulatory nightmare that prevents them from spending quality time caring for patients. H.R. 3391 addresses their legitimate concerns. It simplifies the regulatory process, provides education and technical assistance to health care providers, protects the rights of providers when audited, and moves us toward a more sensible and collaborative partnership between Medicare and doctors. The bill also modernizes how Medicare selects its administrative contractors, by getting rid of the artificial distinctions between Part A and B and allowing Medicare to benefit from competition in contracting. It also creates an ombudsman to help providers solve problems they encounter with Medicare and to get seniors the answers they need. Because audits of providers have become so hostile, the bill creates a demonstration program that will provide intense and targeted technical assistance to our smallest providers, who usually serve seniors in poorer rural and urban areas. |