[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11978]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   PRESERVING MEDICARE PATIENT ACCESS

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, this week the Energy and Commerce 
Committee's Subcommittee on Health will begin a markup on legislation 
to fix a problem that Congress has been struggling with for over a 
decade, and that's fixing what's known as the ``doc fix,'' or the 
sustainable growth rate formula.
  The proposed legislation is bipartisan. Both sides of the dais agree 
that this must be done, and it incorporates the feedback we've received 
from over 80 stakeholder groups. The legislation replaces the 
problematic formula with an improved system to increase the quality of 
care for Medicare patients while streamlining the costly and 
complicated process in a fiscally responsible way.
  Most importantly, the legislation ensures that Medicare patients will 
continue to have access to medical service. By providing incentives for 
doctors to continue to treat Medicare patients, we're putting the 
health of our seniors first.
  I'm proud to be part of this commonsense solution, and I look forward 
to speaking to this House more about this in the weeks to come as it 
works its way through committee.

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