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Sen. Coburn Wants to Share Your Opinions with the US Senate

Originally Posted to the Sermo Community
By: SenatorCoburnMD, OBGYN

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Sen. Coburn Wants to Share Your Opinions with the US Senate

I will share the results of this poll and your comments with members of Senate. Please participate by Saturday, March 13th.

I recently attended the bipartisan summit on health reform President Obama hosted at the White House. I was pleased to see the President acknowledge that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle understand many of the problems in health care and have policy solutions.

Unfortunately, despite the spirit of cooperation at the summit, now the White House and Congressional majority seem determined to push the deeply flawed health bills through Congress on a party line vote. They have chosen this path despite the American people's clear rejection of these bills. A recent CNN poll  showed that more than 7 in 10 Americans want Congress to start over on health care, or stop working on the issue altogether.

Many politicians in Washington, DC are not listening to the American people, much less physicians. But Congress needs to again hear what you as physicians think about "health reform." In fact, at the end of this message I invite you to take a poll - and I plan to share your responses with each of my colleagues here in the U.S. Senate. Please consider participating. Physicians and patients-not politicians and special interests-should be the prominent voices in reform.

The bills in Congress are untenable.  According to the analysis of non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and the Administration's own actuary (here and here), the bills in Congress would dramatically increase taxes, slash Medicare, increase premium costs above the status quo, and bend the cost curve up. The bills also would dramatically increase the federal government's interference in health care, despite that government already directs nearly two-thirds.

I believe the American people are right. Congress should start over and work together on common-sense incremental reforms..

During the White House summit I underscored that reform must seriously reduce needless costs in health care - such as defensive medicine practices and fraud. American taxpayers lose an estimated $100 billion to waste, fraud and abuse in public health programs each year.

Because one of my comments in particular has generated a lot of attention, allow me to briefly explain what I was thinking.

• First, my suggestion to conduct a demonstration project with undercover patients, is similar to the idea of mystery shopping. In my mind, health care providers could target suspected bad actors in high-fraud areas. My intent was to point out how rampant fraud is and suggest the need to take it seriously.

• Second, as a physician, I was not intending to suggest  increasing regulations or interfering with the patient-physician relationship. I would never support increasing bureaucratic interference in this primary relationship.

• Finally, as I pointed out in a letter to President Obama, the amendment is merely one idea to combat fraud, but it is "insufficient to staunch the flow of taxpayer dollars into the hands of criminals." In fact, that is why I cosponsored two bills (S. 2128, S. 975), which would change the way Medicare and Medicaid pay providers. These bills would change the current enforcement culture of "pay and chase," to one of "check and pay" where verification technology would ensure claims are not fraudulent before they are paid.

I think reform should combat fraud, tackle defensive medicine, and lower costs to all Americans. What do you think reform should accomplish? How do you think these bills measure up?  Please let me know your thoughts by Saturday, March 13th.

Thank you for participating in this important dialogue. I appreciate your service to your patients and our nation. I look forward to hearing from you.

Respectfully,

Tom Coburn, M.D.
U. S. Senator

From Sermo: Sermo is a platform intending to help all of America's physicians have a voice in the health care reform debate. All Senators and advocacy groups have been offered (and will continue to be offered) the opportunity to access the community.  The opinions of these individuals or groups are their own and not a reflection of a Sermo position or that of Sermo's employees.  Similarly, their posting to Sermo should not be a misconstrued as an endorsement by Sermo of those views.  

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