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Committee
on Ways and Means For Immediate Release Bipartisanship Provides Momentum for Action on Medicare Accounting Systems HHS Launches Project to Integrate Systems WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson today launched a program to modernize Medicare’s accounting systems, mirroring a proposal advocated by Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Johnson (R-CT) and Ranking Member Pete Stark (D-CA). “Secretary Thompson has taken an essential step to strengthen Medicare’s ability to provide efficient services to America’s seniors. This change has been necessary for over five years,” said Chairwoman Johnson. “We shared our ideas of how to make Medicare work better, and the Bush Administration listened,” Johnson continued. “Seniors will reap the benefits of this bipartisan and intergovernmental cooperation.” After a thoughtful analysis of Medicare during numerous hearings held this spring, the bipartisan leaders of the Subcommittee on Health arrived at a number of changes to streamline and modernize Medicare. On May 14, Reps. Johnson and Stark wrote a letter to Secretary Thompson to outline changes that could be made to improve the program that did not require legislative action. For a copy of the bipartisan letter and the seventeen-page proposal, please click here. Secretary Thompson and Tom Scully, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), have worked together to implement many of the recommended administrative changes with today’s launch of the new Health Integrated General Ledger Accounting System (HIGLAS). Congress will also move to fix problems the Administration cannot remedy on its own. H.R. 2768, the subject of a recent hearing by the Subcommittee on Health, would put patients before paperwork through as series of reforms to the regulatory and contracting system. Committee action on the legislation is expected soon.
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