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Assessing America's Health Risks: How Well Are Medicare's Clinical Preventive Benefits Serving America's Seniors? How Will the Next Generation of Preventive Medical Treatments be Incorporated and Promoted in the Health Care System?"
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Prepared Statement of The Honorable Billy Tauzin Thank
you Chairman Greenwood, and let me commend you for holding this oversight
hearing on the role of preventive medicine in our nation's public health
programs. Americans
today enjoy better overall health care than at any time in the nation's
history. Rapid advancements in
medical technologies, increased understanding of the genetic foundations of
health and illness, improvements in the effectiveness of pharmaceutical
treatments, and other developments have helped to develop cures for many
illnesses and to extend and improve the lives of Americans, especially those
with chronic diseases. These
steady improvements are certainly a blessing. But by themselves, they cannot
address some of the most significant challenges to improving the health of the
coming generation of Medicare beneficiaries.
Just
this week, The Washington Post reported a recent AARP study that showed
Americans over 50 are living longer and suffering with less disability than
previous generations of midlife adults. But
they are more likely to be overweight or obese, live with multiple chronic
health conditions and depend more on prescription drugs. If
we are to realize the full potential of the investments we have made to improve
the quality of health care in this country, we must undertake a serious effort
to assess not only how best to treat these chronic diseases but also how to
implement what we know about changing the behaviors that cause these diseases.
Fortunately,
over the past decade, a growing body of evidence has emerged that shows that
behavioral and social interventions offer great promise to reduce disease
morbidity and mortality. But as
yet, this potential to improve the public's health has been poorly tapped. Today,
we have an opportunity to begin to address how to improve the performance of
programs such as Medicare through the use of preventive health services that
address the behaviors that lead to the onset of chronic diseases.
These preventive health services, in fact, could play an important role
in our effort to modernize the Medicare program. We
are beginning to see some good examples of what will emerge in the marketplace.
Private sector health plans are showing how best to incorporate cutting edge and
nontraditional benefits for the patients they serve. There are numerous examples
of Medicare+Choice Organizations that have improved health care for their
Medicare beneficiaries through innovations focused on nutrition screening,
exercise and fitness programs, and disease management programs, for example,
which craft interventions to cater to beneficiaries with specific chronic
illnesses. These services are
provided without any additional reimbursement, as value added services. Today,
we will hear from a representative from one such Medicare+Choice Organization
that has implemented these types of programs.
I look forward to hearing about the benefits seen in offering such a
program to Medicare beneficiaries. Let
me also add that, if we are to succeed, eventually, in improving the quality of
health care for our Medicare beneficiaries, we must focus on the need to enact
comprehensive reforms. Our public
health programs must coordinate efforts to conduct and gather research on the
most effective means of preventing chronic diseases.
Health policy leaders must begin to work together to determine how best
to offer as sound benefits those clinical preventive services that have been
proven effective. Providers and
health plans, both public and private, must work together to develop uniform
guidelines for working with beneficiaries to guide them to the usage of the
medical services that will truly improve their health status. Undertaking
an effort to achieve comprehensive Medicare reform should ultimately lead to the
systemic changes necessary for strengthening the longevity of this vital program
- and bringing 21rst Century style health care to Medicare.
We can begin this important process by taking measures this year to
strengthen the Medicare+Choice program and add a prescription drug benefit.
Creating a wider variety of health plan options, along with access to
affordable prescription drugs, will begin to provide Americans with the
innovation and choices needed to ensure their long term health.
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