[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 3, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E326-E327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF THE MEDICARE PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GERALD D. KLECZKA

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 3, 1999

  Mr. KLECZKA. Mr. Speaker, today I am reintroducing the Medicare 
Preservation and Restoration Act, which will repeal the Medicare 
private contracting provision of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and 
clarify that private contracts are prohibited under Medicare for 
Medicare-covered services.
  The legislation is simple. First, it requires that providers submit a 
Medicare claim whenever Medicare-covered services are provided to a 
beneficiary. Second, it requires that a provider, when treating a 
Medicare beneficiary, charge no more than Medicare's balance billing 
limits allow. My legislation will settle the issue of private 
contracting once and for all. It will explicitly prohibit providers 
from circumventing the Medicare system, preserve beneficiary billing 
protections, and restore the promise of quality and affordable health 
care for every American senior citizen. My legislation has been 
endorsed by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and 
Medicare and the National Council of Senior Citizens. The Medicare 
Rights Center also has spoken out in opposition to Medicare private 
contracts.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation is the only way we can continue to 
guarantee every senior citizen in America the right to affordable 
health care under Medicare. The private contracts allowed under the 
Balanced Budget Act of 1997 represent a dangerous first-step towards 
dismantling the Medicare program as a whole. They are ill-conceived and 
unnecessary. These contracts will allow doctors to disregard Medicare's 
most important protection--balanced billing limits. These limits 
guarantee that all seniors regardless of their income or their health 
status will have access to affordable health care. Private contracts 
destroy these protections and allow doctors the ability to decide 
patient-by-patient which senior will be forced to pay more than 
Medicare's set rates for needed medical care.
  During debate on the budget bill in 1997, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona 
included this private contracting provision to allow any doctor to 
treat Medicare patients outside of the program and bill the patient 
privately at any rate the doctor sets. During negotiations on the final 
package, the provision was altered to protect beneficiaries and to 
prevent physicians from moving back and forth between billing some 
patients privately and others through the

[[Page E327]]

Medicare program. The final bill stated that if the doctor wanted to 
treat seniors under private contract, then the doctor had to forgo 
Medicare participation entirely for two years.
  This two-year restriction was designed to protect the program against 
fraud, guard against a massive exit of physicians from the Medicare 
program, and ensure that doctors would not create a two-tiered Medicare 
system--one waiting room for private pay patients who are served first, 
and one for non-private Medicare beneficiaries who are served last. In 
the 105th Congress, attempts were made to remove this two-year 
limitation and give doctors the right to decide not only patient-by-
patient, but procedure-by-procedure, which services will be billed 
through Medicare and which will be billed privately. Fortunately, we 
have been successful so far in thwarting these efforts, but the 
campaign of misinformation continues.
  Many of you have probably seen the mailings certain interest groups 
have been sending to our senior constituents in an attempt to distort 
the facts about private contracts. These mailings are falsely scaring 
seniors and attempting to trick them into giving up Medicare's balanced 
billing protections.
  Let's retain Medicare's balanced billing limits for all Medicare 
beneficiaries by eliminating these dangerous private contracts. These 
billing limits are the only way we can guarantee that all seniors 
receive the health care they need at reasonable and fair prices.
  I urge my colleagues to cosponsor the Medicare Preservation and 
Restoration Act--a sensible and responsible proposal which will 
guarantee Medicare for all elderly Americans.

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