James Slattery: “today I am introducing legislation, with the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. McMillan] that will provide significant…”

“today I am introducing legislation, with the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. McMillan] that will provide significant health care savings for our constituents. The Ethics in Billing Act would require that bills for ancillary health services, such as laboratory tests, be sent directly to the patient or an insurer, rather than through the physician who orders the services. Medicare already has a direct billing requirement for laboratory services. This bill would extend direct billing to private payers. The most striking example of the need for this legislation can be found in the laboratory testing industry. Under the present system, physicians can request that laboratories bill them for tests they order for their non-Medicare patients. In most States, it is a common practice for the physicians to request and receive discounts from the laboratory providing this testing. The physicians can then markup the cost of these tests when insurers and patients are billed. This gives the doctor a financial interest in the testing that is ordered. Studies have shown that these mark ups are often unjustified. One survey found an average markup of 139 percent of the price charged by the lab performing the tests. The current system creates incentives that can lead not only to unnecessary laboratory testing, but also to an intolerable level of cost shifting. Enactment of this bill will have an immediate and positive impact on taxpayers and health care consumers.”