[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7275]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       GETTING RICH OFF MEDICARE

  (Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, some people and companies are 
getting rich off Medicare.
  Washington Post columnist Charles Lane wrote about power wheelchair 
suppliers who are reimbursed as much as $5,000 for a basic chair that 
costs them $700 and sells at ordinary retail for $2,500.
  In addition, hospitals are charging wildly varying prices for the 
same procedures. George Washington University Hospital averages 
$115,000 for a patient on a ventilator while Providence Hospital in the 
same city averages $53,000 for the same service. In St. Augustine, 
Florida, one hospital typically billed $40,000 to remove a gallbladder, 
using minimally invasive surgery, and another hospital in Orange Park, 
Florida, charged $91,000. In one hospital in Dallas, the average bill 
for treating ordinary pneumonia was $14,610 while another charged 
$48,000.
  I do not want to see one poor person denied any necessary medical 
treatment. However, we should not treat Medicare and Medicaid as holy 
and untouchable and allow many hospitals, medical providers, and 
suppliers to get filthy rich off government medicine.

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