Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 18, 1993 TAG: 9309180104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Houston Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"If we do this right, those of you on the front lines will spend less time and money meeting the paperwork requirements and more time and energy treating patients," Clinton said during a visit to a children's hospital, where he stepped up his campaign to revise the nation's health-care system.
After touring the records room at the Children's National Medical Center, Clinton said it was time to do away with all the "confusing claim forms" that cost doctors and hospitals more than $100 billion a year to fill out and keep track of.
The key, he said, is a universally accepted standardized claim form that would be used nationwide beginning Jan. 1, 1995.
A government-mandated form would force the nation's 1,500 insurance companies to simplify their coverage requirements and accept a "comprehensive benefit package" that all Americans will have, he said.
In remarks to young patients, doctors and nurses, Clinton acknowledged that federal rules and regulations are "a big part of the paperwork problem" and pledged that his plan also would drastically cut government red tape by simplifying Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and claims processes.
But he emphasized that Medicare and Medicaid benefits would not be reduced, as critics of his plan claim, but merely simplified to cut administrative costs.
"Nobody is talking about cutting Medicare and Medicaid," he said. "We're talking about whether it doesn't need to increase at 16, or 12, or 15 percent a year anymore."
Dr. Lillian Beard, a pediatrician at the medical center, said paperwork takes her two to three hours a day to complete. "This is not what we trained all these years to do," she told the president.
The health-care system devotes more than 20 percent of its revenue to administration, Clinton said. The number of hospital administrators has been increasing at four times the rate of physicians.
Clinton called the paperwork a waste of "time and the patient's money."
Clinton also hinted that his administration might charge employers of 5,000 or more workers a surcharge if they choose to buy their own insurance rather than join huge insurance-purchasing cooperatives envisioned by the plan.
Talking to reporters, Clinton said no final decision had been made but that a "good case" could be made for a special charge amounting to 1 percent of payroll.
by CNB