7/31/2019 Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's June 18 Letter to CMS

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June 18, 2012

Marilyn Tavenner

Acting Administrator/Chief Operating Officer

CENTERS FOR MEDICATE AND MEDICAID SERVICES

200 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Room 314 G Humphrey Building

Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Acting Administrator Tavenner:

I write to express my deepest concern over your suspension of Medicare payments for

Partial Hospitalization Services (PHP) to Riverside General Hospital (RGH), via your

contractor, Health Integrity, LLC. It appears that, in suspending the Medicare payments,

you in effect have jeopardized some of the most vulnerable patients whose access toMedicare is literally their lifeline. I am requesting that the suspension of PHP service

payments and pre-payment review be deferred until the end of any and all pertinent

investigations. I am respectfully asking that you review your decision because of the

potential harm to patients and the existence of alternative remedies.

As you may know, RGH is a community-based non-profit acute care facility that provides

outpatient hospital care to the citizens of Harris County and Houston, Texas. Indeed RGH

was the first to provide health care to African Americans in Houston, and was the first that

allowed well-trained African American physicians to work and admit patients.

This distinguished and honorable history renders RGH as a model of the type of institutionwhich in the past operated under less-than-ideal conditions from its inception but has gone

on to become a venerated medical facility.

Unfortunately, the fraudulent acts of a former hospital Administrator, now incarcerated,

have served to undermine and denigrate a stellar institution. Even if more harmful acts

prove to be true, an entire institution should not be penalized by the acts of one person.

7/31/2019 Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's June 18 Letter to CMS

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Again, I request that you reinstate the payments to RGH based on my reading of the good

cause exceptions to suspension of Medicare payments of the Code of Federal Regulations. I

am asking that you review your decision because of the potential harm to patients and the

existence of alternative remedies.

As a Member of Congress I am aggressively committed to the preservation of the integrityof the CMMS funds, as such, I am requesting that the suspension of PHP service payments

and pre-payment review be deferred until the end of any and all pertinent investigations.

Thank you for your attention and your cooperation to this matter.50075

Very Truly Yours,

Sheila Jackson Lee

Member of Congress

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