Political Quotes

“I am pleased that we are bringing this bill to the floor today. This bill combines two pieces of legislation, H.R. 1845 which provides a demonstration for the coverage of home infusion of intra venous immune globulin (IVIG) and H.R. 1063, which makes improvements to the Medicare Secondary Payer process. H.R. 1063 was developed and reported by the Energy and Commerce Committee as a bipartisan effort. I commend Chairman Upton's willingness to work with us to achieve a solution. I believe we have a good balance assembling this package of improvements to the current process. Under current law, Medicare is a secondary payer to certain group health plans and non-group health plans regardless of state law or plan provisions. These plans include auto or other liability insurance, no- fault insurance, and workers' compensation plans. But even though it is legally a secondary payer, it pays medical claims for Medicare beneficiaries--even if they may have other entities with a legal responsibility--and then recovers its expenditures so seniors and persons with disabilities are able to get the services they need. Then the appropriate claims are settled after the fact. The goal of the Medicare Secondary Payer bill is to reduce the burdens of the secondary payer process for beneficiaries and other stakeholders and help to have timely settlements, but to do so in a way that makes sure we are also protecting taxpayer dollars and the Medicare trust fund.…”