[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 5 (Thursday, January 9, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E37]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS TO ALLOW AGENCIES TO FIGHT FRAUD, WASTE, AND 
                     ABUSE IN THE MEDICARE PROGRAM

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                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 9, 2014

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce two technical 
corrections to the Affordable Care Act. These two bills provide minor 
technical corrections to avoid confusion and to ensure that regulators 
can effectively do their work in combatting fraud, waste, and abuse in 
the Medicare program. We need to extend the solvency of the Medicare 
program and to do so, we must ensure that the regulatory agencies are 
empowered to fully enforce provision to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse 
in the Medicare program.
  The first bill would allow certain physician extenders, including 
physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse 
specialists, to document that the face-to-face encounter required by 
the Affordable Care Act has occurred. The Affordable Care Act currently 
requires that a physician document that a face-to-face encounter has 
occurred, even though the law allows the face-to-face encounter to be 
performed by a physician extender. The face-to-face encounter is an 
important tool to combat fraud and abuse in the durable medical 
equipment context, and it is important to recognize the role that 
physician extenders play in many instances.
  The second bill would correct an error in the ACA that was carried 
over from an underlying law, which prevents regulators from stopping 
waste, fraud, and abuse. A provision in the Affordable Care Act 
intended to allow regulators additional discretion to impose a surety 
bond on home health agencies based on the volume of payments they 
received from the Medicare program. However, due to a drafting error in 
the underlying law that was inadvertently perpetuated in the Affordable 
Care Act, the bond that regulators can require from home health 
agencies is essentially capped at $50,000. For large providers, this 
amount is too low a sum to have a meaningful impact and directly 
contradicts Congress' intention to require a higher bond from home 
health agencies that receive substantial Medicare payments.
  We must continue our efforts to extend the solvency of the Medicare 
program. Fighting fraud is a nonpartisan issue. I urge my colleagues to 
support these technical correction provisions.

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