Legislative update ... quality of care under the Medicare program

The following is the text of a statement made by William L. Roper, M.D., Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, before the Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, on June 3, 1986. He discusses concerns about quality of care under the Medicare program and his commitment to ensuring that every Medicare patient receives high quality, medically necessary care. He delineates the mechanisms and activities that the Health Care Financing Administration uses to assure quality, new methods that are being explored, and the research program emphasis on the impact of the prospective payment system on quality as well as possible refinements to the system.