During a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) questioned Brian Renfroe, National President of the National Association of Letter Carriers, about treatment options for federal employees.
00:01Next, we will go to Mr. Courtney from Connecticut.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:05Thank you for the waiver and to the ranking member for the waiver that allows me to participate today.
00:12Again, just as the lead co-sponsor on the Democratic side for H.R. 3170,
00:17I just wanted to foot stomp a couple of points that were made by Mr. Renfro and Ms. Omar,
00:24who raised this issue earlier in her questioning.
00:27This is a bill which has been introduced a number of times.
00:29It actually goes back to 2011.
00:32It recognizes that direct access to nurse practitioners and physician assistants
00:38is widely sort of embraced now in the health care system,
00:42both at the state level and the federal level.
00:45The Medicare system has allowed direct billing by nurse practitioners and PAs for almost a decade at this point.
00:52And, again, if anything, again, it has provided patients with access in a very stressed time in terms of physician shortages.
01:02The American College of Medical Colleges and Universities reports that we're going to have a physician shortage
01:09of about 86,000 at the rates we're going right now in terms of retirements and, you know, the inadequate replacement.
01:18So the issue of physician access in terms of just the global system is, if anything, going to worsen if we don't sort of provide other options.
01:27And, again, Mr. Renfro, your testimony, again, I think powerfully demonstrated what the need is,
01:33particularly in rural parts of the country.
01:36Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter of support from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners
01:44for HR 3170 as well as a letter in support of the legislation from the Workers' Injury Law and Advocacy Group.
01:51Without objection.
01:52Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
01:53And in my remaining time, Mr. Renfro, you heard Ms. Hull testify in favor of basically overriding employees' right
02:02to seek their own health care provider and instead take doctors that are on a list provided by the Postal Service.
02:10What is the letter carrier's position on that type of possible change?
02:16Yeah, we would be very much opposed to modifying the current ability of federal employees that are injured's right
02:25to seek their own provider that treats injured federal employees.
02:30I think you highlighted very well the need to expand those treatment options.
02:34I would also just like to comment on a couple of other points that were raised in the OIG report.
02:42The recommendations regarding lump sum payments as opposed to continuing benefits.
02:51There's an issue raised about requiring those that are injured to begin taking an OPM annuity at age 65.
02:59We are very staunchly opposed to those type of reforms.
03:05As I mentioned earlier, the most pressing issue is access to care.
03:10And this legislation would go a long way towards addressing that.
03:14I will note one piece that I think is important that was recommended in the OIG's report.
03:21And that is to maximize the usage of generic prescription drugs.
03:26We are in full support of that as that's also become a trend sort of across the health care industry.
03:33And again, the OIG's office has done really impressive work in terms of identifying waste, fraud, and abuse,
03:39which Ms. Hull's briefed the staff here.
03:42And kudos, again, to OIG.
03:45The letter carriers completely support all efforts, right, to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse in the system.
03:52We 100 percent support efforts to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse because the impact of expenses that are eventually passed on to the Postal Service
04:03is very much as it was described earlier, potentially could result in benefits not being paid to someone who is entitled to them under the law.
04:12I think it's important for me to mention my union has invested very heavily in representing our employees that are injured.
04:21And one of the primary reasons beyond, of course, ensuring that they receive their benefits is to make the process as efficient as we possibly can.
04:29We've also engaged directly through, beginning with the Obama administration, the first Trump administration, the Biden administration,
04:36now with the second Trump administration, with OWCP to improve and modernize processes to offer them the perspective of the individual that's filing the claim.
04:47And we've made a lot of progress, as was mentioned earlier, in recent years with OWCP, and we really believe that we can continue to do that.
04:55But it's important to us that benefits are paid efficiently to those who are entitled to them under the law,
05:00but we certainly are supportive of efforts to eliminate fraud, to eliminate waste, to eliminate abuse of the program,
05:08so long as it does not result in...
05:11I think we have to be careful that we do not impact those that are entitled to those benefits to ensure they receive them.
05:18But yes, sir, we would 100 percent support any of those efforts.
