Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the House Rules Committee, prepared the following remarks for today's Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Hearing, Lowering Unaffordable Costs. 
     


As Prepared for Delivery:

First, thank you all for coming today. I’m very pleased to see the list of bills for the hearing as well as the discussion drafts under consideration.

There are a few things I would like to mention today. First, thank you to my fellow members Rep. Crenshaw, Rep. Clarke, and Rep. DeGette for working with me to address the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments avoiding cuts and ensuring access to care for vulnerable patients. I have a history of working on DSH, and I am pleased to see a bipartisan fix move forward.

H.R. 977 the Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act is also being considered before the committee today. Through the expansion of the “Stark Law” in the ACA, physicians are blocked from owning hospitals just because of the two letters behind their names. Physician-owned hospitals provide quality, efficient, and cost-effective care. Patient care begins and ends with doctors, and no one is more aware of this fact than physicians themselves. 

Lastly, I wanted to mention my interest and involvement working on a discussion draft of a bill that would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to consider the effect of regulatory changes to certain Medicare payment systems on provider and payor consolidation.

I mentioned in the last hearing that health care consolidation continues to remain a huge issue that continues to drive costs and limit care.

If we look at our health economy at large, three significant issues that continuously stand out are access, quality, and cost. Understanding that health care consolidation and concentration lead to increased prices, by introducing further competition into the marketplace, we can expect a decrease in costs across the board. Further, for rural and underserved areas, not having access to a hospital can severely limit options for patients.