Jerry Nadler: “I want to say that the practice of physicians being offered incentives, positive incentives that if they deny a…”

“I want to say that the practice of physicians being offered incentives, positive incentives that if they deny a treatment, they get more money, and negative incentives, if they grant the treatment, they get less money, and this form of health care that is proliferating throughout this country has led, as the gentleman said, to many denials of health care where it was needed, and it also constitutes an institutionalized conflict of interest. If someone came to any Member of this body and said, ``Vote this way and I will pay you $1,000,'' we would call that a bribe, it would be against the law. But, in effect, what you have with many of these HMO's now is a practice where the insurance company comes to the doctor and says, ``If in all your patients this next week you do not refer more than ``X'' number to specialists or to have a test, a CAT scan, we will give you more money, and if you do, we will take away money from you.''”