Providing Exception to Limit on Medicare Reciprocal Billing Arrangements

Floor Speech

PROVIDING EXCEPTION TO LIMIT ON MEDICARE RECIPROCAL BILLING ARRANGEMENTS -- (House of Representatives - May 23, 2007)

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker and Members, this is a very important bill. There are almost 3,000 physicians that are serving our country in the Reserves and the National Guard. And, as has been pointed out, when these folks are deployed and they leave, just like every other person in the Guard and Reserves that is deployed, they leave their families, they leave their businesses at home, and they go over and they serve their country. But there is just one thing different with these doctors; when they are deployed, they also leave behind their patients. And these are patients who depend upon the medical care they get from that great American who is now serving his or her country, and these patients can't go without a doctor.

The way the rules are now, the physician has to line up someone to take their patients in their absence, and they can only do this for 60 days. This doesn't work. It is bad for the doctors and it is bad for the patients. What we are trying to do is to waive that 60-day requirement so the physicians can line up one doctor to take their Medicare patients while they are serving our country in Afghanistan or in Iraq.

And it's a temporary measure. It's only good through this year. So we can, in fact, establish a permanent fix. And this bill has been vetted all through the different committees, and the Ways and Means Committee, both the chairman and the ranking member are very aware of this bill. And my good friend and committee colleague and war hero Sam Johnson has signed up on this as a coauthor, recognizing the plight of both the physicians who are serving, and their patients and their practices at home. And it's important that we fix this now and then continue to work on the permanent fix so we can make sure that no doctors and no patients who are caught in this vise go without medical care, or doctors, while serving their country, lose their practices.

And I just want to say a special thank you to Dr. Bradley Clair of Lakeport, California, my constituent, who brought this to my attention. And he's ready to be deployed on his third tour. He'll be going to Iraq. So we need to fix it for him, for the other doctors, and patients who are exposed because of this problem. We need to fix it permanently. And this is the first step in doing so.

Sam, thank you for your help and your friendship on this and other important issues.

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