[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 13 (Monday, March 31, 1997)]
[Pages 409-411]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Medicare Fraud Initiative and an Exchange With Reporters

March 25, 1997

    The President. Thank you very much, Governor Chiles. And thank you, 
Secretary Shalala. Ladies and gentlemen, I also want to thank the 
representatives of the AARP who are here and others who have been very 
interested in this program.
    As all of you know, and as I have given further evidence of here 
today, I was recently reminded the hard way that our doctors and medical 
care are the best in the world. That is certainly true. I can vouch for 
the doctors and nurses in the hospital in Florida that cared for me when 
I was recently injured. I've worked hard to give all America's families 
access to quality health care, and as Governor Chiles and the Secretary 
have made clear, a critical part of that mission has to be to make sure 
that our system is free of fraud.
    Over the past 4 years, we have made real progress in our efforts to 
expand access to

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health care. Last year we made it possible for people to move from job 
to job without fear of losing their health insurance. Our balanced 
budget plan will provide health care coverage for up to 5 million of the 
10 million children who don't have it. It preserves and strengthens the 
Medicare system, ensuring the life of the Medicare Trust Fund for 
another decade.
    Today we are taking the next steps to end the waste, fraud, and 
abuse in health care that threatens our ability to provide high-quality 
and affordable health care for America's citizens. Medicare fraud costs 
us billions of dollars every year. It amounts to a fraud tax that falls 
on all of our taxpayers but most heavily upon our senior citizens. 
Because of fraud they have to pay higher premiums and higher out-of-
pocket costs that otherwise they would not have to pay.
    Medicare and Medicaid are more than just programs, they are the way 
we do honor to our parents, the way we strengthen our families, the way 
we care for our poorest and most vulnerable children. We cannot tolerate 
fraud that robs taxpayers even as it harms those of us to whom we owe a 
great duty.
    The law enforcement partnership described by Governor Chiles and 
Secretary Shalala has made real strides in the fight against health care 
fraud. Over the past 4 years, we have assigned more Justice Department 
prosecutors and more FBI agents to fight health care fraud than ever 
before. We've won a record number of convictions and settlements in 
fraud cases. All told, since 1992, the number of health care fraud 
convictions has increased by 241 percent. Operation Restore Trust, which 
Secretary Shalala described, has the potential to save $10 for every 
dollar invested in it.
    All of these efforts together have helped us save over $20 billion 
in health care claims. Money that would have been wasted has gone 
instead to help provide quality health care and peace of mind for 
America's families.
    Today I am pleased to announce that I will send to Congress 
legislation to continue and toughen our crackdown on fraud and abuse in 
the Medicare and Medicaid programs. First, the best way to prevent fraud 
is to keep dishonest doctors and other scam artists out of the Medicare 
system in the first place. Under this bill, a provider or supplier who's 
been convicted of fraud or another felony could be barred from joining 
the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
    For example, in Florida, our investigators found a medical equipment 
supplier previously convicted of securities fraud, and they found that 
supplier was bilking the Medicare program. He was ordered to pay $32 
million in restitution, and he's back in jail serving a 9-year sentence. 
But people like this should not be allowed to join Medicare in the first 
place. With this legislation, it's less likely that they will be able to 
do that.
    Second, our reform would improve safeguards against fraud by 
requiring anyone who wants to do business with Medicare to register with 
the Government and give us their Social Security number. This will help 
track and stop fraudsters who try to repeat their crimes setting up shop 
under phony names with dummy corporations or in new States.
    Third, the legislation will toughen sanctions so that those who 
cheat pay the price. The Government will have a stronger hand in 
imposing larger and newer civil monetary fines.
    And finally, it will close loopholes in the law that today let 
Medicare and Medicaid providers pocket overpayments from the Government 
simply by declaring bankruptcy. Under this bill, Medicare providers will 
no longer be able to avoid accountability by declaring bankruptcy.
    These steps are important. They will save the Government and the 
American people a great deal of money. They will also buy something that 
money cannot alone buy, a greater sense of security and peace of mind 
for our parents, our most vulnerable families, and children. We can and 
will preserve Medicare. We can and will make the Medicaid system work 
better and serve more children. The steps we take today will protect and 
strengthen those systems that mean so much to our families and to our 
future. And thank you all for your contributions to the effort. Thank 
you very much. [Applause] Thank you.
    And let me just say one other thing. This is my first public 
statement, I think, since coming back from Helsinki. We had a terrific 
meeting there. It was good for the United

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States, good for the people of Russia. And again, I'd like to thank my 
medical team for making it possible for me to make the trip so soon 
after my surgery. But it went fine, and it was a remarkable thing, not 
only the progress we made on NATO but especially on our commitment to 
slash the nuclear arsenals of both the United States and Russia by 80 
percent from their cold war highs, within decades. So I'm very excited 
about it. It was a good meeting, and I'm glad to be back.

President George Bush's Skydiving

    Q. Mr. President, what do you think about your predecessor's venture 
into skydiving? [Laughter] President Bush is supposed to be parachuting 
even as we speak. [Laughter]
    The President. I am mightily impressed. [Laughter] And I wish him 
well. I'm excited. I can't wait to see him get down and give us the 
story. [Laughter]

President's Visit to Mexico

    Q. Are you going to have to postpone your Mexico trip because of 
your injury?
    The President. What we have decided to do--and I think we've 
announced it--we will announce it today--is to postpone the Mexico trip 
for about a month and put it where I was going to do my full Latin 
American trip to the other countries, to Central America, to South 
America, and the Caribbean. And what we're going to do is to make the 
trip to Mexico, to Costa Rica, and to Barbados, to do Central America 
and the Caribbean and Mexico during that timeframe. And then later in 
the year, we're going to go to South America and do that trip, when I'm 
somewhat more mobile, because, among other things, we're going to 
Argentina and Brazil. They're big countries. There's going to be a lot 
of moving around, and I need a little more physical mobility. Besides, 
I'm hoping to ride horses and do some other things, and I'm not quite 
ready for that, as you can see.

Medicare Initiative

    Q. Mr. President, the cornerstone of the Florida program is the 
surety bond and the on-site inspections, both of which are missing from 
your proposal. Why is that?
    The President. Do you want to comment on that?
    Secretary Donna Shalala. Yes. The on-site inspection is in it. On 
the surety bond, it's one of the things that we have the authority under 
our regulatory authority, and we'll have a later announcement on that.
    The President. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:32 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Lawton Chiles of 
Florida.