[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 103 (Thursday, July 25, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1379-E1380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        MEDICARE OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT FAIR PAYMENT ACT OF 2002

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN D. DINGELL

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 25, 2002

  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join with my colleagues Mr. 
Sessions, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Burr to introduce this important 
legislation, the Medicare Outpatient Department Fair Payment Act of 
2002. This legislation was introduced in the Senate earlier this year 
by Senators Bingaman and Snowe.
  Medicare provides health insurance coverage to more than 40 million 
seniors and individuals with disabilities; it has provided high-quality 
care to these individuals for more than 35 years. But, in order to 
ensure that beneficiaries continue to have access to high quality 
health care, we must ensure that providers

[[Page E1380]]

are being adequately reimbursed. We have only to look to the Medicaid 
program, which has a long standing history of inadequate payment rates, 
to see how dramatically payment rates can affect beneficiaries access 
to care. You can't expect to get the quality of a Cadillac if you only 
have enough money to cover the cost of a Yugo.
  This legislation that we are introducing today will make sure that 
hospital outpatient departments are being adequately reimbursed under 
Medicare. First, it will ensure adequate payments for clinic and 
emergency room visits. Rural and inner city hospitals provide a high 
volume of these services and are especially vulnerable to low payments. 
This bill will address that problem. Second, the bill will extend the 
payment protections for certain hospitals, such as cancer hospitals and 
extends these protections to eye and ear hospitals as well to ensure 
adequate rates for these special facilities. Third, the bill would 
restore the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
with respect to outlier payments for outpatient departments and would 
ensure the outlier pool is adequate to provide insurance against losses 
in high-cost cases. Fourth, the bill gives the Secretary additional 
authority and direction with respect to increasing certain relative 
payment rates and preventing reductions from pass-through payments and 
budget neutrality adjustments.
  These four points are only some of the key provisions in the bill, 
All told, this legislation will increase funding for hospital 
outpatient departments by $380 to $480 million over the next five 
years. This funding will certainly be beneficial to Medicare 
beneficiaries and others who receive care in these facilities.
  Hospitals and their related facilities are important to our Michigan 
communities. They not only provide excellent health care, but serve as 
an important part of the local economy by providing quality jobs. 
Payments to many facilities have suffered in recent years as due to 
state and federal budget cuts. The direct result has been hospital 
closures and staff layoffs. The legislation we are introducing today 
will have a double benefit for Michigan--access to quality health care 
and access to quality jobs.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate 
to pass this legislation and to improve reimbursement rates for 
hospital outpatient departments under Medicare.

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