Chuck Grassley: “on behalf of Senator Breaux and myself, I am introducing legislation today to require the use of universal product…”

“on behalf of Senator Breaux and myself, I am introducing legislation today to require the use of universal product numbers (UPNs) for all durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare purchases. A similar bipartisan bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Amo Houghton and Louise Slaughter. The purpose of this legislation is to improve the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) ability to track and to appropriately assess the value of the durable medical equipment it pays for under the Medicare program. Very simply, our bill will ensure Medicare gets what it pays for. According to a report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Office of Inspector General's review of billing practices for specific medical supplies, the Medicare program is often paying greater than the market price for durable medical equipment and Medicare beneficiaries are not receiving the quality of care they should. HCFA currently does not require DME suppliers to identify specific products on their Medicare claims. Therefore it does not know for which products it is paying. HCFA's billing codes often cover a broad range of products of various types, qualities and market prices.”