Comply with HHS or else! Health Care Senate Bill (pgs. 161-180)

These twenty pages of the bill deal with compliance issues with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). New institutes and commissions will be created to ensure that health care providers fully comply with the HHS. On pages 161-168, these new institutes and commissions will be funded by the US Treasury. The funding for these commissions will add to the national debt. The new standard in the healthcare game is HIPAA. On pages 169-173, anything involved with health care must comply with the privacy standards created by HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountablity Act) in 2003. What HIPAA did is establish the legal groundwork for universal health care to one day become the norm throughout the USA. This health care bill would not have even been created if it were not for HIPAA. Since the laws have already been set for universal health care, malpractice law will not be reformed as stated on page 174. However, hospitals can apply to be exempt from the self-referral plan on page 175. Doctors cannot protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits while the administrators of the hospitals can refer someone to their hospital without receiving any reprimand given. This type of self-referral is like insider trading on Wall Street. Drug companies will be taking a huge hit due to pages 176-178. All transactions between drug companies and physicians or hospitals must be reported to the Secretary of the HHS. Drug companies can no longer bribe doctors to prescribe their drugs over a rival company's drugs without the HHS knowing about the transaction. Drug companies could be fined up to one million dollars if they do not comply. This would begin on 10/1/2010. All drug sample transactions also must be recorded and sent to the Sec. of HHS. This could jeopardize the profits of many drug companies because most of these transactions are done under the table. On pages 179-180, nursing homes will be held more accountable. The Nursing Homes Compare website will have a standardized complaint form placed within the site. HHS will tabulate all of the complaints. This will actually be good so that you can steer your loved ones away from the nursing homes in which the nurses beat the patients. All in all, I believe that the HHS will be given too much authority by giving them full sovereignty over the universal healthcare system.