Dupage Policy Journal

A Trump campaign promise has gained more attention after a mid-August congressional report on trimming Medicare red tape was released.

The report, titled “Medicare Red Tape Relief Project,” was jointly produced by the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Illinois), and the House Ways and Means Committee, headed by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texa).

The committees pledged to make things easier for doctors after an Annals of Medicine report found that doctors spend twice as much time on record keeping as they do seeing patients.

President Trump

Roskam said the mountain of red tape in health care caused the committees to undertake simplification.

“The Medicare program has reached the threshold where the regulatory burdens placed on health care providers are now coming at the expense of patient care — we cannot allow this to continue,” Roskam said in a press release.

The report also found the regulations can be expensive. Up to a quarter of yearly hospital spending — over $200 billion — is claimed by paperwork and compliance, the press release stated. This puts the U.S. in front of seven other Western nations in administrative costs.

“This report lays out ways we can minimize egregious regulatory strain in the Medicare program in order to improve the quality of health care for patients,” Roskam said.

Roskam has represented the 6th District in Washington since 2006. The area is comprised of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties.