Roskam hails federal actions to improve Medicare; calls for more

The Trump Administration’s recent action to improve senior Americans’ health care by easing federal regulatory burdens for Medicare providers is a positive step that should be replicated, said U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health.

“We applaud the Administration for recent efforts to improve the Medicare program by cutting red tape for beneficiaries and reducing the regulatory burden for providers. We urge the Administration to continue its efforts to reduce burden for providers and remove other regulatory barriers that get in the way of patient care,” wrote Rep. Roskam and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) in several letters sent to Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

In three separate letters dated Sept. 4, the lawmakers applauded efforts by CMS to reduce red tape for hospitals, to minimize similar burdens for post-acute care providers, and to cut down bureaucracy for the nation’s physicians.

The congressmen’s letters followed on the heels of an Aug. 15 report released by the Ways and Means Committee recommending how federal lawmakers and the administration could reduce excessive red tape and regulatory burdens in the Medicare program.

“The Medicare program has reached the threshold where the regulatory burdens placed on health care providers are now coming at the expense of patient care – we cannot allow this to continue,” Rep. Roskam said upon releasing the report, which resulted from the committee’s work in its Medicare Red Tape Relief Project.

The project is part of the Ways and Means Committee’s ongoing efforts to update and improve the Medicare program, according to Roskam, who said the report “lays out ways we can minimize egregious regulatory strain in the Medicare program in order to improve the quality of health care for patients.”

Reps. Roskam and Brady said in a joint statement released earlier this week that during the past 18 months, “this Republican Congress and the Administration have expressed an increased interest in reducing the ever-growing burdens faced by our nation’s health care providers.”

They said they look forward to continuing their work with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Administrator Verma “on additional opportunities to improve patient care and reduce health care costs by eliminating regulations that distract providers from patient care, drive up costs, hinder access, and get in the way of coordinated care.”