[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5636-H5638]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING EXCEPTION TO LIMIT ON MEDICARE RECIPROCAL BILLING
ARRANGEMENTS
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 2429) to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to
provide an exception to the 60-day limit on Medicare reciprocal billing
arrangements between two physicians during the period in which one of
the physicians is ordered to active duty as a member of a reserve
component of the Armed Forces.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2429
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. EXCEPTION TO 60-DAY LIMIT ON MEDICARE RECIPROCAL
BILLING ARRANGEMENTS IN CASE OF PHYSICIANS
ORDERED TO ACTIVE DUTY IN THE ARMED FORCES.
(a) In General.--Section 1842(b)(6)(D)(iii) of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395u(b)(6)(D)(iii)) is amended by
inserting after ``of more than 60 days'' the following: ``or
are provided (before January 1, 2008) over a longer
continuous period during all of which the first physician has
been called or ordered to active duty as a member of a
reserve component of the Armed Forces''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a)
shall apply to services furnished on or after the date of the
enactment of this section.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Pallone) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.
[[Page H5637]]
General Leave
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New Jersey?
There was no objection.
Mr. PALLONE. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation. I thank my
good friend from California (Mr. Thompson) for sponsoring it. This
legislation is necessary to ensure that our Nation's doctors, who are
brave enough to serve their country in a time of war, have a medical
practice to serve in when they come home.
Currently, Medicare allows for a physician who is ordered to active
duty as a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces to enter
into a 60-day billing arrangement with another physician. These
arrangements allow for physicians to maintain their practices while
they go off to take care of our soldiers in combat.
Unfortunately, what we are finding is that they are often away longer
than 60 days, which puts them at odds with the current Medicare
antifraud rules. This legislation fixes that problem by lifting the 60-
day limit currently in place, and allowing a physician who is called to
active duty to find a substitute physician to watch over his patients
for as long as he or she is deployed.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
(Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill on
substance and in adamant opposition of the process.
Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the substance of this
bill. It has two distinguished cosponsors, one in the majority party,
one in the minority party. The underlying substance is eminently fair,
and we are not going to ask for a rollcall vote. If it passes on a
voice vote, so be it.
But having said that, I want to say in the strongest possible terms
how extremely disappointed, and I mean extremely disappointed, that we
have a bill that is in two committees of jurisdiction, the Ways and
Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee, and the bill had
not even been introduced, had not even been introduced until this
morning. There was no bill number.
Now, when you put a bill on the Suspension Calendar, theoretically
the majority party, the chairman or chairmen or chairwomen ask the
ranking member of the minority party if there is any problem with the
bill. If there is not, then they approve it. Then the Speaker of the
House or the majority leader of the House calls the minority leader of
the House and says, ``We want to put this bill on the Suspension
Calendar.'' And you do it.
Now, we have a bill before us that was not even introduced until the
House convened this morning. There has been no hearing, there is no
record, there has been no phone call. Chairman Dingell did not call me
yesterday, he did not call me this morning. I don't know if Chairman
Rangel called Ranking Member McCrery. I do know that Nancy Pelosi or
Steny Hoyer did not call John Boehner.
So we are now in a situation, we have a little extra time, let's
introduce a bill and pass it in the next 30 minutes. We did not do that
when we were in the majority.
Now, this is a good bill. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Johnson deserve
accolades for seeing a flaw in the current Social Security law, the
Medicare law, and rectifying it. That is not the issue.
The new majority campaigned on a platform of fairness and openness.
Is this fair? Is this open?
This happens to be a good bill. What if it weren't? What if it
weren't?
The only two Members that really know anything about it are the two
cosponsors, and thankfully they are both decent, honorable men, and we
have read the substance of the bill and it is okay. But this is not the
way the House of Representatives should be run. It is just wrong, W-R-
O-N-G, wrong.
So I support the substance of the bill, but I am adamantly opposed to
the process. I hope this thing goes on a voice vote. If it is a
rollcall vote, I am going to vote ``present'' and express, when I see
Mr. Dingell, in the strongest possible terms how upset I am about the
process.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. BARTON of Texas. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Let me just correct one thing. The staff
tells me Mr. Rangel did call our committee yesterday at 10 o'clock in
the morning on this bill. So the Ways and Means Committee was informed.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Did he call Mr. McCrery?
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Yes.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Then I stand corrected.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Just in response, I understand where Mr. Barton is coming from. But I
just want to point out that we do have bipartisan support in the House
on the bill. And it is only a temporary measure that lasts for 1 year
and provides immediate relief to these physicians that are going
overseas and fighting for the country. It is a very special
circumstance, which I don't think provides any real precedent here,
because we do have these physicians who are going to serve their
country in Iraq and we just don't want them to have a situation where
they come back and they don't have any medical practice. I just don't
think that is fair.
I would mention to the ranking member that if we wanted to make a
permanent change in this, we would be sure to spend more time and work
with our Republican colleagues in accomplishing that goal. This is a
temporary measure, and it is just because of the circumstances.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson)
such time as he may consume.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker and Members, this is a very important bill. There are
almost 3,000 physicians that are serving our country in the Reserves
and the National Guard. And, as has been pointed out, when these folks
are deployed and they leave, just like every other person in the Guard
and Reserves that is deployed, they leave their families, they leave
their businesses at home, and they go over and they serve their
country. But there is just one thing different with these doctors; when
they are deployed, they also leave behind their patients. And these are
patients who depend upon the medical care they get from that great
American who is now serving his or her country, and these patients
can't go without a doctor.
The way the rules are now, the physician has to line up someone to
take their patients in their absence, and they can only do this for 60
days. This doesn't work. It is bad for the doctors and it is bad for
the patients. What we are trying to do is to waive that 60-day
requirement so the physicians can line up one doctor to take their
Medicare patients while they are serving our country in Afghanistan or
in Iraq.
{time} 1130
And it's a temporary measure. It's only good through this year. So we
can, in fact, establish a permanent fix. And this bill has been vetted
all through the different committees, and the Ways and Means Committee,
both the chairman and the ranking member are very aware of this bill.
And my good friend and committee colleague and war hero Sam Johnson has
signed up on this as a coauthor, recognizing the plight of both the
physicians who are serving, and their patients and their practices at
home. And it's important that we fix this now and then continue to work
on the permanent fix so we can make sure that no doctors and no
patients who are caught in this vise go without medical care, or
doctors, while serving their country, lose their practices.
And I just want to say a special thank you to Dr. Bradley Clair of
Lakeport, California, my constituent, who brought this to my attention.
And
[[Page H5638]]
he's ready to be deployed on his third tour. He'll be going to Iraq. So
we need to fix it for him, for the other doctors, and patients who are
exposed because of this problem. We need to fix it permanently. And
this is the first step in doing so.
Sam, thank you for your help and your friendship on this and other
important issues.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume
to the minority sponsor of this piece of legislation, the Honorable Sam
Johnson of Plano, Texas.
Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, you know, it's not every day
the House gets to consider a bipartisan, commonsense bill that's
affordable. This doesn't cost anything and supports our service men and
women overseas. However, I'm happy to say this is one of those days.
Right now the law prevents a Medicare physician from leaving his
practice for more than 60 days at a time. And the regulation was
created to prevent fraud, but it had the unintended effect of making
life more difficult for someone that's called up to serve his country.
And this bill eliminates the red tape by allowing our reservists to
have one substitute doctor for their entire deployment.
Not only will the bill help our reservists, it'll prevent Medicare
beneficiaries from experiencing a gap in service or losing access to
care altogether.
And I want to thank my colleague from California for bringing this
problem to my attention, I'm surprised we hadn't had it brought to our
attention before, and for all the work you and your staff have done to
get the bill to the floor today.
Those who serve our country and their communities need and want our
assistance, and it's time we helped our weekend warriors who happen to
be doctors to keep their patients and keep their practice. This is a
great bill, and I appreciate the time. I thank Mr. Kucinich for
providing us the opportunity.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. I was
going to inquire whether my colleague on the other side does.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. No, Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I
may consume briefly.
We support the underlying concept of the bill, and, as I said, if it
passes on a voice vote, we won't ask for a roll call vote.
I do stand by what I said, though, in terms of the committee process.
We've got two bills on the suspension calendar from the Energy and
Commerce Committee. Neither bill had a legislative hearing. Neither
bill had a markup at subcommittee or full committee. Neither bill was
introduced in its current form as of 2:45 yesterday afternoon. Both
bills are on the floor today on the suspension calendar. That does call
into question whether we even need an Energy and Commerce Committee,
given that everything apparently comes to the floor without going
through the committee process.
But we support the underlying principles of this bill, and we
certainly support the patriotism and courage of the two sponsors.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I would just say again, this is a temporary
measure. We have these brave men and women who are leaving to care for
our troops in Iraq, we're in a time of war, and I think it's just a
very special circumstance right now. So I would urge my colleagues on
both sides of the aisle to support passage.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2429.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas
and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will
be postponed.
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