Arlen Specter: “I seek recognition to support an amendment being offered by Senator Schumer to reverse a recent Centers for Medicare and…”

“I seek recognition to support an amendment being offered by Senator Schumer to reverse a recent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, regulation reducing payments to hospice service providers. This amendment is also cosponsored by Senators Rockefeller, Stabenow, Wyden and Roberts. In October 2008, CMS finalized a rule that cut hospice reimbursement under Medicare. This reduction limits the ability of hospice providers to provide comprehensive, high quality end-of-life care to Medicare beneficiaries and their families. In 2008, an independent study from Duke University, clearly demonstrating the cost savings associated with hospice care, noted, ``Given that hospice has been widely demonstrated to improve quality of life of patients and family members . . . the Medicare program appears to have a rare situation whereby something that improves quality of life also appears to reduce costs.'' During the 110th Congress, in response this regulation, I introduced S.3484, the Hospice Protection Act, to reverse the CMS regulation. The bill received bipartisan support and garnered thirty five cosponsors however we were not able to move the legislation forward. The economic stimulus legislation offers an opportunity to correct a misguided regulation that has put an estimate 3,000 individuals out of work.”