
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 12, 1995                   TAG: 9507120062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PRESIDENT CUTS SOME RED TAPE IN HEALTH CARE

Declaring that hospitals are not ``dens of thieves'' and physicians are not crooks, Vice President Al Gore said the Clinton administration is scrapping a form doctors had to sign before Medicare would pay patients' hospital bills.

The move will save physicians 200,000 hours of time each year, eliminate 11 million forms, save hospitals $137 million and help them collect up to 30 days faster from Medicare, Gore said Tuesday.

Hospitals often had to hunt physicians down to sign the ``attestation form'' certifying the accuracy of each patient's diagnoses and procedures, even though it duplicated information on the patient's charts.

At a White House event with Hillary Rodham Clinton and health officials, Gore called the old requirement crazy.

``From now on, we will start with trust instead of mistrust,'' he said.

by CNB