Bennet, Freshmen Dems Unveil Plan to Lower Costs, Expand Innovation in Health Care Reform

Press Release

Video: http://bennet.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=8d919c24-8cde-4fcf-ae77-2bccf1e1eebe

Bennet's Amendment Would Help to Cut the Red Tape in Health Care System - Simplify Administrative Processes

Amendment Package to Senate Health Care Reform Bill Will Help Rein in Runaway Health Care Costs, Accelerate Shift to Value Over Volume

Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado, and a group of his freshmen Democratic colleagues today unveiled a package of amendments to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aimed at increasing transparency, boosting innovation and reining in runaway costs as part of health care reform.

The amendments have been endorsed by many of the nation's leading business, consumer and health provider organizations, including the Main Street Alliance - a coalition of small business owners from Colorado and across the country.

As part of the freshmen package, Bennet authored a provision that streamlines administrative processes so that doctors and nurses can spend less time on paperwork and more time on their patients. Specifically, the provision would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to adopt and regularly update a single, national standard for some of the most basic electronic transactions that occur between insurers and providers.

"Doctors and nurses across Colorado have told me that endless paperwork, confusing codes for claims and a tangled bureaucracy create an overwhelming burden that results in higher-cost and lower-quality care," said Bennet. "We need to bring our system of coding and information sharing into the 21st century. If we do this, we will cut down on red tape, increase transparency and speed innovation that controls costs and improves the quality of care for all Coloradans."

More broadly, the package of amendments offered by Bennet and the group of freshmen Democrats strengthens the Senate's current health reform proposal in three significant ways:

* It establishes public-private arrangements to better synchronize changes across medicine, with an eye towards preventing cost-shifting to others.
* It eliminates red tape and fights fraud, which drives-up costs.
* And it compels Medicare to become a leader in overall health reform by speeding the move toward a higher-value, lower-cost model for the future.

"Health care reform must make the system more efficient and affordable for Coloradans, and while the bill we're considering is a good step in the right direction, the amendments we're offering today will help move us even closer to that very important goal," Bennet said.

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