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Managed care for Medicare fails to win Senate support
Posted
11-1-99 Washington. The Senate Finance Committee last week rejected President Clinton's proposal to make several changes to Medicare. The proposal, intended to trim the costs of Medicare, called for shifting Medicare away from its traditional fee-for-service format and restructuring it along the lines of an HMO. The cost-cutting plan called for designating specific hospitals across the country as "centers of excellence." Patients would be encouraged to use these centers for high-cost procedures like heart surgery and hip replacement. The plan also would have allowed the government to hire specialists to coordinate care for recipients with conditions such as high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and asthma. In addition, federal officials would have been allowed to use competitive bidding for discounts on medical equipment, supplies, and services. Opponents feared the proposal would limit access to care. "It could reduce access to services in areas where local hospitals did not win a contract with Medicare," said Richard Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, in a California Healthline interview. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., ranking minority member of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, was unhappy with the vote. "He [Stark] was disappointed," said Bill Vaughan, staff assistant for the subcommittee. "This is the kind of thing we are going to need if Medicare is going to survive in the next century." Many legislators predict that several elements of the plan will return for consideration when Congress looks at overall Medicare reform in 2000. "This is by no means a dead issue," said Chris Hand, spokesperson for Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who has been a strong supporter of reform. "A number of members of the committee said they would rather take this up next year."
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