Thomas Manton: “I rise in support of H.R. 1791, the Medicaid Certification Act. Current Medicaid law establishes quality standards for…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 1791, the Medicaid Certification Act. Current Medicaid law establishes quality standards for physicians providing care for children and pregnant women in the Medicaid Program. When we passed that original legislation, we specified that physicians certified by the medical specialty board recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties would meet the quality standards. But we failed to make specific mention as well of the medical specialty board recognized by the American Osteopathic Association. This legislation corrects that oversight. Clearly it was always the view of the committee that board-certified osteopaths are high quality providers, and should not be treated any differently than board-certified allopathic physicians. This simply corrects any misunderstanding that may have been implied by our failure to mention them in the original legislation. I want to stress that in making this change we are in no way relaxing or stepping back from the original intention of the legislation to assure that quality standards are in effect for these providers of Medicaid services to pregnant women and children.”