William Tauzin: “on behalf of Chairman Bliley and Chairman Bilirakis, I bring to the floor H.R. 3871 and urge support of the measure.…”

“on behalf of Chairman Bliley and Chairman Bilirakis, I bring to the floor H.R. 3871 and urge support of the measure. H.R. 3871 amends title 19 of the Social Security Act to extend 3 existing 75-25 percent waivers of section 1903. Section 1903 is the section of the current Medicaid law that requires that Medicaid beneficiaries constitute less than 75 percent of the membership of any prepaid health maintenance organization. A present, a number of States and health plans are operating under federally approved waivers of this section. The bill we are considering today extends those 75-25 waivers held by 3 of these plans: Health Partners of Philadelphia, Fidelis Health Plan of New York, and Managed Healthcare Systems of New York. Health Partners of Philadelphia is a not-for-profit voluntary health maintenance organization comprised of local teaching hospitals. It is independently licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and fully accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. It serves approximately 87,000 Medicaid recipients and 250 commercially enrolled individuals in Philadelphia and the surrounding area. While Health Partners' chief focus is on primary care, health education and prevention, it also provides transportation services, expanded vision and dental benefits, multilingual capability, 24-hour access to mental health and substance abuse treatment, as well as home visits for new and expectant mothers and fathers.”