Why Regulatory Reform Is A Health Care Issue

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Why Regulatory Reform Is A Health Care Issue

By Tommy G. Thompson,
Secretary of Health and Human Services

Too often we let well-intended rules overtake our good judgment. When it comes to health care -- doctors should be doctors and nurses should be nurses -- not paper pushers. TSCL members know; too much paperwork means less time for patients. Our health care professionals should be free to do what they do best -- provide the highest quality health care in the world. By using some basic common sense, we can improve patient care.

To fix that, the Department of Health and Human Services has launched the Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform. The Committee will look for ways to make it easier to provide health care while maintaining or improving high standards of accountability and quality.

The purpose of the Committee is not to do away with regulations. These play a valuable role in the way our health system operates to protect consumers and patients. Instead, the Committee will focus on rules and paperwork that serve little purpose, discourage efficiency, and deplete the time and energy of health care providers.

We have already taken some significant steps. We've developed an on-line application for state governments to use as they seek to increase access to health care for people in their states. In addition, the FDA changed the label requirements on all over-the-counter drugs to make it easier for people to locate information when choosing a product. The new label provides information in a new easy-to-read format.

But we can do more. New regulations should meet a high standard. They should not impede innovation, new treatments, or access to care. By examining the intent behind existing regulations, the Committee can recognize competing objectives and interests in the system and then determine how best to serve them.

The Committee will not focus on recommending changes to existing laws, though they may make such suggestions. Instead they will focus on how the implementation of current law can be made more efficient, more streamlined and less cumbersome.

The Committee will hold hearings throughout the year in order to get input from people with front-line experience as providers and consumers of health care. The Committee will also consider public comments submitted to it. More information can be found at http://www.regreform.hhs.gov.

Final recommendations will be issued in the fall. Along the way, proposals for change will be reported to me as developed. When a proposal is sound, and I have the administrative authority to make changes, they will be made.

By applying common sense, we will improve the quality and efficiency of our health care system. And the Committee provides all of us an opportunity to do our part toward this goal. Ordinary citizens and physicians alike can give their input. The Committee will listen, and I will act.

April 2002