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Slushing Regulatory Costs

Click to see original imageThe president of the Hospital Association of New York has charged that the cost of complying with regulations from 164 govemment agencies in that state accounts for one-fourth of a patient’s hospital bill. If that is true, and if a similar situation exists in other states, the Herald believes the hospital regulatory setup ought to be promptly investigated. George V. Al en, association president, declared that in one year the cost of complying with regulations amounts to $1.1 billion of New York’s acute care hospital -bill of $4.4 billion. He said the New York study the first largescale one done in the nation – indicates the cost of meeting regulations “must be adding to hospital bills everywhere in the nation.” Fifty-two percent of the 309 acute care hospitals in the state participated in the survey. The N.Y. hospital association is (1) asking Gov. Hugh Carey to study the regulation structure spawned by state regulations; and (2) plans to ask the Health, Education and Welfare Department to look at the cost of federal regulation and the paperwork connected with it as a factor in boosting hospital bills. HEW Secretary Joseph Califano has attacked “bloated hospital bills” but how much of the fat comes from overlapping paperwork connected with duplicative regulation never has been calculated, according to a UPI dispatch. Allen complained that “each regulatory agency has its set of auditors, clerks, analysts and office support system.” In addition, he said, the inspection teams have travel expenses, including meals and hotel bills. He estimated 115 million man hours are spent filling out and filing forms required of hospitals in the N.Y. association in a year, and claimed: “That is the equivalent of 56,000 hospital employees – enough to sta f 75 hospitals of 50 beds each.” Obviously a certzin amount of regiglation is necessary. Hospitals ac owledge this, according to Dr. Carol McCarthy, who directed the New York study. But on the surface, overlapping and the mountains of paperwork claimed in the survey would seem out of line. We’d suggest an effective examination of the hospital regulatory situation, and hope this could be achieved without excessive costs and more mountains of paperwork. If there are as many agencies as the New York report says, many of them ought to be eliminated. Meantime, we urge selfexamination by each necessary agency with a view to eliminating duplication, scrapping unnecessary requirements, and cutting costs. Republicans Losing Buttle for Bucks Probably the biggest “growth industry” in American politics is in the field of olitical action committees (PAEs) established by corporations, trade associations and other business groups to channel campaign contributions to favored candidates for public of-fice. With much of that money going to candidates for House and Senate seats, business groups tend to favor the Democratic chairmen of the congressional committees and subcommittees with jurisdiction over legislation affecting the donors. Republicans have become increasingly bitter about that pattern, since their part-y has traditionally been more ‘symphatbetic to business interests. The GOP has waged an intensive battle in recent years to reverse the trend. But newly compiled figures show that thus far in the 1978 campaign, more than 61 percent of the $1.78 million given to congressional candidates by business PACs has gone to Democrats, with Republicans receiving less than an mn-me e