Putting Patients First By Strengthening Provider Accountability in Feca Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8823, Putting Patients First by Strengthening Provider Accountability in FECA Act.
Providers are the greatest source of fraud in the Federal Employees' Compensation Act program, otherwise known as FECA. For example, during this committee's oversight of the opioid crisis, we learned about corrupt compounding pharmacies that were crushing up pills and putting them into creams, even though the medicines in those pills were not absorbed through the skin. A 15-ounce tube of this useless cream got charged to the FECA program for $15,000.
Existing rules allow the Department of Labor to strike a provider from the list of eligible providers in the FECA program when they are convicted of fraud in any public health program. Those rules do not enable the Department to stop payment on any claims that a convicted provider has already submitted prior to the conviction. That could amount to millions of dollars in claims with a high risk of fraud moving through the system.
There are, of course, due process issues that could arise, but this bill already contemplates those issues by empowering the Department of Labor to develop appropriate rules for implementing the new authority. All in all, this bill closes an important gap and protects taxpayers.
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to my colleagues Representatives Omar and Mackenzie on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, this simple, bipartisan bill protects taxpayers. It does so without weakening the FECA program. It simply targets truly bad actors, corrupt physicians, pharmacists, and other providers who exploit injured Federal workers and rip off the FECA program.
This is an example of the kind of reform that makes sense. We are not saving money by turning our backs on the people who need these benefits. Instead, we are focusing the attention where it ought to be, on the providers who profit off workers' pain unlawfully.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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