Thornberry Introduces Bills To Help Reduce Health Care Costs
Congressman Says Doctors Need Paperwork Relief and Fair Tax Treatment

Washington, DC – “For too long the federal government has been trying to balance the sky rocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid on the backs of our doctors and medical professionals,” said Congressman Mac Thornberry.  “If we want the medical profession fully in the fight against rising health care costs, the government needs to recognize the value of the donated services they provide and reduce the bureaucratic cost burden government imposes on our health care providers.  That is why I have introduced the “Patient Fairness and Indigent Care Promotion Act of 2008” and the “Health Care Paperwork Reduction Act and Fraud Prevention Act of 2008.”

The “Patient Fairness and Indigent Care Promotion Act of 2008” would encourage doctors to treat low-income patients by allowing them to deduct the costs of treatment as a bad debt write-off from their federal taxes.  While this measure does not solve every problem, it is a fair and common sense measure that will help reduce overall health care costs and provide a needed community service. This measure may also help relieve the strain on emergency rooms by providing a fair business solution for doctors who have long been willing to provide care to indigent patients, but who have had no way of recognizing that expense on the business side of their practice.

A 2004 study done by Harvard Medical School and Public Citizen found that health care bureaucracy cost the United States $399.4 billion in 2003.  This amount of money would be enough to cover all of the uninsured and provide full prescription drug coverage to everyone in the United States.

The “Health Care Paperwork Reduction Act and Fraud Prevention Act of 2008” would establish a Commission on Billing Codes and Forms Simplification which would make recommendations to Medicare and private insurance on uniform billing practices that would limit the amount of burdensome paperwork and also protect privacy.  The Commission would also study electronic forms and billing practices with the same goal in mind.

“It would be great to just pass a bill to cut health care paperwork,” observed Thornberry, “but it is a complex subject that does not easily lend itself to a solution imposed by Congress.  That is why we need the first step of a Commission to bring Medicare and the private sector together to identify the best practices and find consensus on how to get them adopted across the entire health care delivery and health insurance system.”

“These two bills are another part of what I call my ‘No Excuses’ agenda,” concluded Congressman Thornberry.  “Congress must stop blaming others for the high cost of health care and energy.  It is time to recognize that government-imposed costs are a big part of the problem.  These bills are simple, commonsense steps to cut costs by treating doctors fairly and reducing unproductive government-imposed costs on doctors and patients.”