[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 100 (Thursday, July 21, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTION OF THE PRESERVING PATIENT ACCESS TO INPATIENT 
                  REHABILITATION HOSPITALS ACT OF 2005

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                         HON. FRANK A. LoBIONDO

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 21, 2005

  Mr. LoBIONDO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the 
``Preserving Patient Access to Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals Act 
of 2005.'' This important piece of legislation will ensure that 
patients across America will continue to have access to the 
rehabilitative care they need, and that experts in this community are 
organized to advise and make recommendations to Congress and the 
appropriate federal agencies based on the realities and challenges 
facing the rehabilitative field today and in the future.
  Rehabilitation hospitals provide essential care to patients 
recovering from conditions such as stroke, hip replacement, and cardio-
pulmonary disease. They treat patients young and old, temporarily and 
permanently disabled. They allow their patients not only the chance to 
recover quicker, but to resume active and high quality lifestyles.
  Unfortunately, with each passing month fewer and fewer Americans will 
have access to the unique care and services that rehab hospitals 
provide. A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) policy, 
commonly known as the ``75% Rule'', is being enforced in such a way 
that many patients, often regardless of their unique and pressing 
needs, are being turned away from facilities that could otherwise 
provide them with the best available care.
  The ``75% Rule'' requires a rehab facility to ensure that a 
percentage of its patients are receiving treatment for one or more 
conditions as specified by Medicare. When the current rule went into 
effect in July of 2004, 50% of a rehab facility's admissions were 
required to fall within the list of conditions, on July 1st this 
percentage rose to 60%, and will continue to rise until it returns to 
75% in 2007. According to a Government Accountability Office report, 
many rehab facilities will not be able to meet this 75% threshold 
required at full implementation of the rule.
  In an effort to comply with the 75% Rule over the past year, 
thousands of patients across the country have been turned away from the 
care they desperately need. Rehab hospitals have been forced to tell 
patients recovering from cancer and strokes to look elsewhere for care, 
and have been forced instead to leave beds empty and reduce their 
staffs so that they can continue to provide care to the patients they 
are still able to treat. And with each coming year the situation will 
only get more dire.
  The ``Preserving Patient Access to Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals 
Act of 2005'' will help ease this problem by allowing hospitals 
additional time to figure out how to ensure they are in compliance with 
CMS's rules, while still providing the unique care and services they 
are able to provide to the patients most in need. It will also create a 
National Advisory Council on Medical Rehabilitation to ensure that 
future policies created by Federal agencies and Congress reflect the 
realities and challenges facing the field of rehabilitative care 
without denying needed care to patients.
  The American Hospital Association, American Medical Rehabilitation 
Providers Association, Federation of American Hospitals and numerous 
other associations and advocacy groups join me in supporting the 
``Preserving Patient Access to Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals Act 
of 2005.'' Their members are seeing first hand the devastating effect 
the ``75% Rule'' is having on those in need of rehab care today and the 
enormous impact further implementation of this Rule will have.
  Each and every day, patients across America are being denied the 
rehab care they need and deserve and which could be available to them. 
I urge you to speak for them and to support the ``Preserving Patient 
Access to Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals Act of 2005.''

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