[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 32 (Monday, August 14, 2000)]
[Pages 1851-1852]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Electronic Claims for Health Care Transactions



August 11, 2000


    Every day, tens of thousands of health claims are submitted to 
insurers and other payers by our Nation's health care providers. These 
billing forms are often incomprehensible, inconsistent, and duplicative, 
frequently serving little useful purpose. They waste the time and 
financial resources of our talented health care professionals and can 
result in higher premiums and lower quality of care.

    With today's release of new national standards for electronic claims 
for health care transactions, we are taking a major step towards 
eliminating burdensome, time-consuming, and wasteful paperwork that 
costs the Nation's health care system billions of dollars each year. In 
fact, the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that these 
administrative simplification regulations will achieve a net savings to 
the health care system of nearly $30 billion over the next 10 years.

    As we use our new technology to streamline our health care system, 
we will maintain our absolute commitment to protect the sanctity and 
privacy of medical records. The standards we are releasing today will be 
required to be implemented consistent with the privacy regulation that 
we will be finalizing later this year.

    Today's action is a win for patients and health care providers 
alike. When we save money from the health care system, we succeed in 
keeping premiums down. When we reduce paperwork requirements on our 
physicians, they have more time to spend with their patients. Improving 
quality, eliminating wasteful spending, and maintaining our values 
should be the goals we strive to achieve in health care and every public 
policy we pursue. I believe that we are achieving all three goals with 
the release of today's new standard.


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