The Committee on Energy and Commerce has scheduled a two-day field hearing entitled “Examining the Impact of Illegal Immigration on the Medicaid Program and Our Healthcare Delivery System.” The first day of the field hearing will take place on Thursday, August 10, 2006, at 10:00 a.m. in the Main Room at the Brentwood City Hall, 5211 Maryland Way, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. The second day of the hearing will take place on Tuesday, August 15, 2006, at 10:00 a.m. in the Lecture Hall at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center, 2211 Dug Gap Battle Road, Dalton, Georgia 30720. The hearing will focus on the impact of illegal immigration on our healthcare system and provide a forum for Members to examine recent legislative efforts that help address this growing problem, such as §6036 and §6043 of the Deficit Reduction Act (P.L. 109-171).

Witnesses

Brentwood, Tennessee: On August 10, 2006, the Committee will hear the testimony of three panels. The first panel will consist of The Honorable Bill Ketron, member of the Tennessee State Senate, and The Honorable Donna Rowland, member of the Tennessee State House of Representative. The second panel will consist of Mr. Darren Gordon, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Tenncare, and Mr. Dennis G. Smith, Director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The third panel will consist of Mrs. Jone Koford, President of American Division for LifePoint Hospitals; Mr. Bob Duncan, Vice President for Advocacy and Government Relations for Methodist Healthcare-LeBonheur; and Dr. Corey M. Slovis, Professor of Medicine and Chairman of Emergency Medicine for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dalton, Georgia: On August 15, 2006, the Committee will hear the testimony of three panels. The first panel will consist of The Honorable Casey Cagle, member of the Georgia State Senate; The Honorable Chip Rogers, member of the Georgia State Senate, and The Honorable Curt Thompson, member of the Georgia State Senate. The second panel will consist of Ms. B. J. Walker, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR), and Ms. Jean Sheil of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations for CMS. The third panel will consist of Mr. James E. Gardner, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of Northeast Georgia Health System; and Mr. Charles Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of Hutcheson Medical Center.

Purpose

The purpose of this field hearing is to provide Members of the Energy and Commerce Committee with a forum within which to examine the impact of illegal immigration on the health delivery systems of the areas surrounding Brentwood, Tennessee, and Dalton, Georgia, and how recent legislative efforts may impact this growing problem. Specifically, witnesses at the field hearing will be prepared to provide testimony on how §6036 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Improved Enforcement of Documentation Requirements) is being implemented in Tennessee and Georgia, and any State plans to potentially implement §6043 of the DRA (Emergency Room Co-payments for Non-emergency Room Care).

The March 2005 Current Population Survey (CPS), produced by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, estimates that there are 11.1 million illegal aliens residing in the United States. However, it is difficult to precisely enumerate a population which is trying to avoid detection by the government, and as a result, estimates on the number of illegal immigrants as well as their impact on certain sectors of the economy vary widely. Since it is extremely difficult to get accurate data on illegal aliens, many studies make assumptions about the number of illegal aliens, their service usage, and their revenue contributions. As a result, many studies which attempt to estimate the cost of health care for illegal aliens in the United States focus on limited geographic regions (e.g., border communities, States, or cities). Some of these studies survey immigrant communities and ask immigration status, while others ask for local agencies to estimate the cost of services provided to illegal aliens. Other studies use proxies, such as those who provided a false Social Security number or foreign-born workers who are low wage earners, to determine who is an illegal alien.

In May 2004, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study entitled Undocumented Aliens: Questions Persist about Their Impact on Hospitals’ Uncompensated Care Costs. The study concluded that since hospitals do not generally collect information on patients’ immigration status, an accurate assessment of the impact of illegal aliens on hospitals’ uncompensated care costs “remains elusive.” GAO surveyed 503 hospitals, but as a result of the low response rate to the survey, was unable to determine the true cost of uncompensated care provided to illegal aliens.