The Valley’s Congressional delegation welcomed calls for a government study on the region’s high health care costs Monday, saying a clear analysis could only help lawmakers better understand the issue.

Their support came a week after Rep. Michael C. Burgess, R-Flower Mound, first requested that the Government Accountability Office — Congress’ investigative arm — undertake an independent examination into McAllen’s Medicare spending.

“It is important to truly understand the complexities of the healthcare delivery system in our community,” said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Mercedes. “Knowing that will better inform our decisions as we move forward with a plan that builds on what is working and what will be best for our community.”

Burgess urged the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee to request the study after a June article in The New Yorker magazine singled out McAllen as home to the second-highest Medicare spending per enrollee in the nation.

Medicare is a federally funded program offering health care assistance for individuals who are 65 and older, and for the disabled.

In 2006, the program spent $15,000 per enrollee here — $3,000 more a year than the income of the county’s average resident and a price tag topped only by Miami — according to statistics culled by the The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice

Among the piece’s other conclusions:

* physicians in McAllen too often request unnecessary tests and services;

* critically ill Medicare patients here receive almost 50 percent more specialist visits and five times as many home health care visits than those in El Paso, a comparable border community;

* and patients in the Rio Grande Valley are two to three times as likely to receive pacemakers and implantable defibrillators or undergo heart bypass operations than those in the city to its west.

The story has made McAllen a touchstone for those supporting an overhaul of the country’s $2.2 trillion health care system and has reportedly become required reading within the Obama administration.

But without an independent analysis, “Congress will be inclined to make broad assumptions that lead to inappropriate legislative decisions about how to control the costs of health care,” said Burgess, a licensed physician. “These decisions will likely not properly address the challenges of overall spending reductions in McAllen or elsewhere in the country.”

Representatives from Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance and McAllen Medical Center — two hospitals featured in The New Yorker piece — declined to comment on the possibility of a GAO study Monday. But they have previously criticized the magazine’s article, saying it failed to recognize the realities of the local community.

For many residents, they said, the emergency room serves as the first stop for any medical problem. Without health insurance, many postpone treatment of diseases until they are in advanced stages, requiring tests and treatments that could have been prevented.

The doctors have urged Obama administration officials to come to Texas to view the region’s health care spending themselves.

“McAllen has been thrust into the national spotlight at a time when health care reform tops the minds of most Americans,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. “Both doctors and patients alike are looking for ways in which we can improve the health care system. We need to find a balanced bill to achieve this.”


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