Statement by the President: Electronic Claims for Health Care Transactions (8/11/00)
                              THE WHITE HOUSE

                       Office of the Press Secretary
                          (Aboard Air Force One)

_______________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                           August 11,
2000


                        STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

     Every day, tens of thousands of health claims are submitted to
insurers and other payers by our nation's health care providers.  These
billing forms are often incomprehensible, inconsistent, and duplicative,
frequently serving little useful purpose.  They waste the time and
financial resources of our talented health care professionals, and can
result in higher premiums and lower quality of care.

     With today's release of new national standards for electronic claims
for health care transactions, we are taking a major step towards
eliminating burdensome, time-consuming and wasteful paperwork that costs
the nation's health care system billions of dollars each year.  In fact,
the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that these
administrative simplification regulations will achieve a net savings to the
health care system of nearly $30 billion over the next 10 years.

     As we use our new technology to streamline our health care system, we
will maintain our absolute commitment to protect the sanctity and privacy
of medical records.  The standards we are releasing today will be required
to be implemented consistent with the privacy regulation that we will be
finalizing later this year.

     Today's action is a win for patients and health care providers alike.
When we save money from the health care system, we succeed in keeping
premiums down.  When we reduce paperwork requirements on our physicians,
they have more time to spend with their patients.  Improving quality,
eliminating wasteful spending, and maintaining our values should be the
goals we strive to achieve in health care and every public policy we
pursue.  I believe that we are achieving all three goals with the release
of today's new standard.

                                 30-30-30


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