Healthcare Leadership Council Urges Swift Passage of Medicare Physician Payment Reform Legislation

WASHINGTON – A coalition of chief executives of the nation’s leading healthcare companies and organizations today endorsed and encouraged rapid passage of congressional legislation to permanently replace the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) physician payment system with a stable payment approach that will bring greater certainty to healthcare providers while improving the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries.

“For far too many years, we have asked healthcare professionals to teeter on the cliff while they wait to see if Congress will rescue them at the last second from harsh Medicare payment cuts,” said Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) President Mary R. Grealy. “We applaud the bipartisan leadership in both the House and Senate for fashioning a system that is not only sensible and stable, but that will create meaningful incentives to strengthen healthcare quality.”

HLC is an alliance of health industry CEO’s from all sectors of healthcare including, among others, health insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies.

Ms. Grealy said, in addition to establishing a reliable physician payment structure, her organization strongly supported legislative provisions that would foster better chronic care management and care coordination in addition to the advanced use of Medicare data for quality improvement.

“This is a significant step forward,” she said. “The legislation opens the door for millions of seniors and beneficiaries with disabilities to gain from the best that 21st century healthcare has to offer.”

Ms. Grealy added, “While there is much more work to be done to structurally strengthen Medicare for the demographic and financial challenges that accompany the retirement of the baby boom generation, this bipartisan legislation makes Medicare a better healthcare provider and a more reliable partner to those who treat beneficiaries.”