[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 137 (Wednesday, September 6, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             PRESS ADVISORY

                                 ______


                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 6, 1995
  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I would like to issue a press advisory 
concerning the coalition to save Medicare.
  Earlier this month, a spokesperson for the coalition was quoted as 
saying--

       We want to reform Medicare and we want to save it. That's 
     what it's all about. No one's going to be forced into managed 
     care or anything else. It's so simple and so innocent. I'm 
     just amazed at how it's being depicted. (Associated Press, 
     August 9, 1995.)

  The person who made this comment on behalf of the coalition was 
Claire del Real. Ms. del Real served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary 
for Public Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] 
during the Reagan administration. Upon leaving HHS, Ms. del Real took a 
position with International Medical Centers [IMC]. IMC was a private 
HMO participating in a Medicare demonstration project that promised to 
provide free prescription drugs, eyeglasses, and doctor and hospital 
care without Medicare deductibles in an effort to increase competition 
and reduce costs to the Medicare Program. (The Washington Post, June 
23, 1987.)
  In reality, IMC President Miguel Recarey was indicted for being one 
of the most fraudulent parties to ever participate in the Medicare 
Program, with the fraudulent activity permitted largely as a result of 
waivers approved by HHS officials. Recarey remains a fugitive from U.S. 
courts. The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human 
Services, the General Accounting Office, and a congressional committee 
found that--

       Between 1981 and 1986, a period in which HHS was making key 
     decisions regarding IMC, numerous HHS employees left 
     Government service for employment with IMC, either directly 
     or as consultants providing services to IMC. (``Alleged 
     Misconduct by International Medical Centers, Inc. 
     Officials,'' Report of the Office of Special Investigations, 
     General Accounting Office, December 15, 1987.)
       Among the former HHS officials hired by IMC was Juan del 
     Real, the HHS general counsel who left the Government in 
     November 1984 to work for a large Washington law firm. The 
     firm began representing IMC several months later and was paid 
     $800,000 in 1986 by IMC. In June 1985, del Real quit the firm 
     to work for IMC at a salary of $325,000, four times what he 
     earned as a Government lawyer. IMC also hired his wife, 
     Claire, a former HHS spokesperson at $130,000 per year. 
     (Miami Herald, 1988.)
       McClain Haddow, the chief of staff to the Secretary of HHS, 
     was found to have circumvented his agency's normal 
     procedures, got a secret opinion justifying the waiver to IMC 
     and granted it. Months after Haddow left HHS in 1986, Claire 
     del Real offered him a job and hired him as an IMC lobbyist. 
     (``Medicare Health Maintenance Organizations: the IMC 
     Experience,'' Hearing of the Committee on Government 
     Operations, December 15, 1987.)

  In sum, Ms. del Real was a senior representative in an organization 
that offered to strengthen, but actually looted, Medicare. Today, she 
represents an organization with the stated goal of saving Medicare.


                          ____________________