After House Passage, Healthcare Leadership Council Calls On U.S. Senate to Act on IPAB Repeal
HLC President Says There Should Be Bipartisan Consensus on Protecting Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries
(HLC President Mary R. Grealy will be available for comment regarding the House IPAB vote. To arrange an interview, contact Kelly Fernandez at 202-452-8700 or kfernandez@hlc.org.)
WASHINGTON – Following today’s House passage of legislation that would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board – the 15-member board of political appointees that would have unprecedented power to affect Medicare spending – the Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of the nation’s leading healthcare companies and organizations, called on the U.S. Senate to act on the issue.
“The Senate needs to follow suit and say definitively that IPAB is not an answer – not an answer to fiscal responsibility, not an answer to improving the Medicare program, not an answer to providing quality healthcare to beneficiaries,” said HLC president Mary R. Grealy.
HLC is one of over 400 healthcare, patient and employer organizations from all 50 states that have sent a letter to Congress saying “the IPAB will not only severely limit Medicare beneficiaries’ access to care, but also increase healthcare costs that are shifted onto the private sector. While we all recognize the need for more sustainable healthcare costs, we do not believe the IPAB is the way to, or will, accomplish this goal.”
Ms. Grealy said the IPAB is structured so that its appointees, whose actions would not be subject to judicial review, would have little option but to slash Medicare payment levels in order to reach its cost-cutting goals.
“There is bipartisan agreement that we should not limit Medicare beneficiaries’ access to care,” she said. “Yet, that is exactly what IPAB will do. In order to meet arbitrary spending targets, payments would be cut. That means more doctors will be restricting the number of Medicare patients they will be able to treat. Stopping this from happening should not be a partisan issue.”
She emphasized that Medicare does need structural reform to improve cost-efficiency while maintaining quality and innovation, but that this will not happen under the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
