Ways and Means Committee targets physician burden with Medicare Red Tape Relief Project

Those intimately familiar with the healthcare system know that "regulatory burden" has become something of a buzzword.

But through the Medicare Red Tape Relief Project, the House Ways and Means Committee has sought to attribute tangible meaning to the term.

On Wednesday, the committee released a report (PDF) detailing what the initiative uncovered during its first year.

In the first of the project’s three stages, more than 300 stakeholders—primarily clinicians and hospital groups—told the committee about the regulatory burdens they face. Quality measure reporting is one issue that came up frequently.

RELATED: Policy experts to legislators: Don't forget administrative spending in quest to lower healthcare costs

Common themes emerged from roundtable discussions with clinicians, hospital representatives, and post-acute care providers, including a desire for greater flexibility in providing telehealth, challenges associated with the Stark Law, and issues with documentation and reporting requirements.

But the third and final stage of the project, “Taking Congressional Action,” is in flux. The committee said it is working with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reduce these requirements and barriers. Members are also determining how to take action legislatively by continuing to "explore commonsense solutions based on the feedback from stakeholders and the administration."

CMS releases nearly 11,000 pages of regulations every year, the report says, and to comply with so many requirements, doctors spend two hours doing paperwork for every hour they spend with patients.

RELATED: Doctors tell lawmakers: Don't scrap MIPS

In fact, the report notes, regulatory compliance is an industry of its own: Hospitals and other providers spend nearly $39 billion every year to comply with 629 mandatory regulatory requirements. One out of every 4 dollars that hospitals spend each year goes toward administrative costs.

The report concludes by highlighting parts of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 that addressed issues the committee heard about during the initiative’s first stage.