House OKs New Medicare Rules

The House on Tuesday unanimously approved a bipartisan bill to streamline the complex and cumbersome rules governing Medicare so that doctors spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork.

Doctors and other health care workers who work with the elderly spend “too much time filling out forms and trying to learn the rules of the road--the changing rules of the road,” Louisiana Republican W.J. “Billy” Tauzin, the chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said during a Tuesday debate that proceeded the vote.

The Medicare Regulatory and Contracting Reform Act of 2001, approved 408 to 0, blended two bills passed by the Commerce and Ways and Means committees. The Senate has not taken up similar legislation this year.

The bill aims to reduce the complex paperwork that doctors, hospitals and other health care providers have to deal with under the federal Medicare program, which provides health care to all Americans age 65 and older.

It would also simplify the regulatory process by having the government release new or updated regulations only once a month. It gives providers 30 days before new rules go into effect and prevents substantive regulatory changes from being applied retroactively.

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Hayward) praised the provisions that give incentives for health care providers to improve the educational outreach efforts and help beneficiaries get answers to their questions. For instance, it establishes a single toll-free phone number where people can get help without going through a bureaucratic telephone maze.

Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) said Medicare is governed by more than 132,000 pages of code, three times the size of the tax code.

The regulations, laws and directives create so much confusion that “multitudes of injustices” are heaped on doctors, hospitals and other health care providers, she said.