[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 122 (Thursday, August 6, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9043-S9044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. Cornyn, and Mr. Harkin):
  S. 1640. A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to 
provide coverage of intensive lifestyle treatment; to the Committee on 
Finance.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Take Back 
Your Health Act of 2009. I want to thank my friends Senator Cornyn and 
Senator Harkin for joining as original cosponsors of this bill.
  This bill is another example of how Democrats and Republicans can 
come together on health reform. This bill incorporates ideas that 
bridge the philosophies of both parties: prevention, individual 
responsibility, and paying for health care services that provide value.
  These days, health care reformers talk about bending the cost curve 
down and focusing on delivery system ``game changers''. Often my 
friends and I have talked about how pevention--preventing disease or 
illness before it happens--does both, but is not scored as bending the 
cost curve by the Congressional Budget Office.
  Over the last year, I have worked with some of the brightest minds in 
prevention--Doctors Dean Ornish, Mike Roizen, and Mark Hyman--on how to 
design a program that will change the focus of medicine from treating 
medical problems to preventing them while delivering savings. The road 
that took us to this bill has not been an easy one, but I believe this 
bill achieves all of our goals when it comes to encouraging healthier 
behaviors that will help prevent disease, especially chronic diseases.
  The heart of this bill is what's called an intensive lifestyle 
treatment program. This program is an individualized health plan 
prescribed by a doctor that gets people living healthier and getting 
healthier through exercise, nutrition counseling, care coordination, 
medication management, and stopping smoking.
  This type of program has been proven to help or even reverse the 
progression of many chronic diseases. A Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield 
study found that their costs went down 50 percent after their patients 
took part in an intensive lifestyle program. That can mean big savings 
for Medicare and for seniors.
  Even a CMS Medicare demonstration--which notoriously does not score

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savings for anything--found that people who went through a lifestyle 
program had the same or lower costs over three years than as Medicare 
beneficiaries who didn't go through the program.
  In times like these, the American people want to know that the 
Medicare program is going to get their money's worth. The Take Back 
Your Health Act embraces a pay-for-performance type system. Doctors are 
paid a bundled payment to encourage efficiency and teamwork, and they 
are held responsible for their success. If a patient's health status 
does not improve according to at least two measures, the doctor doesn't 
get paid. In addition, if a patient goes through the program for 
diabetes, but still has problems and has to go to the hospital, the 
lifestyle treatment doctor doesn't get paid.
  The last innovation in this program is that it gives individuals a 
financial incentive for getting healthier. Every person who goes 
through this treatment program and improves his or her health status 
gets a one-time $200 reward.
  The beauty of this bill is that everyone has skin in the game: the 
doctor, the patient, and the government. That will be the secret of its 
success. It is just this kind of innovative program that can be a real 
game-changer for Medicare and for our entire health care system, by 
bringing the focus of our health care system back to the basics of 
making us healthier.
  I look forward to working with Chairman Baucus and Senator Grassley 
on including this bill in health reform. I urge my colleagues to join 
me as cosponsors on this bill.
                                 ______