The AHA is now backing repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a powerful rate-setting body created by the healthcare reform law, according to an AHA release.
Unless Congress comes up with equally effective alternatives, the board will direct HHS to carry out specific cuts in payments to physicians starting in 2015, but the hospital industry won a reprieve from the rate-setting panel until 2020. While the AMA and other physicians groups have opposed the board, the AHA has not publicly opposed the board until now.
The AHA said it now supports the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act, legislation to repeal the board introduced in July by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
It a letter to Sen. Cornyn, the AHA said by setting up the board, the law "permanently removes Congress from the decision-making process, and threatens the long-time, open and important dialogue between hospitals and their elected officials."
The letter added: "Already, America’s hospitals are paid less than the cost of treating Medicare patients, and although hospitals will not be subject to IPAB decisions until 2020, we are deeply concerned that removing elected officials from the decision-making process could result in even deeper cuts to the Medicare program in the future."
A release by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a co-sponsor of the bill, said the bill is "just one step towards starting over with real healthcare reform that empowers patients instead of beltway bureaucrats."
Here are eight points on how the board will operate:
1. It will be made up of 15 members appointed by the president plus three HHS officials.
2. Beginning in 2012, it will receive $15 million a year for operations.
3. Beginning in 2015, it will direct HHS on specific ways to reduce per-capita Medicare spending in years when spending is expected to exceed target levels.
4. Congress can overrule the board's cuts, but only if it adopts alternatives.
5. The board can cut physician payments but won’t be able to cut hospital payments before 2020.
7. It will submit annual reports on healthcare costs, access, quality and utilization.
8. It will recommend ways to slow spending in the private healthcare market.
Read the AHA release on healthcare reform with link to the letter to Sen. Cornyn.
Read the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act.
Read Sen. Hatch's release.
Read more coverage on the healthcare reform:
- GOP Will Target Independent Payment Advisory Board, Comparative Effectiveness Research in Reform Law
- 6 Ways Republicans Plan to Chip Away at Reform Law After Election
- Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece Says ObamaCare will Gut Medicare, Ax Payments to Hospitals, Physicians
Unless Congress comes up with equally effective alternatives, the board will direct HHS to carry out specific cuts in payments to physicians starting in 2015, but the hospital industry won a reprieve from the rate-setting panel until 2020. While the AMA and other physicians groups have opposed the board, the AHA has not publicly opposed the board until now.
The AHA said it now supports the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act, legislation to repeal the board introduced in July by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
It a letter to Sen. Cornyn, the AHA said by setting up the board, the law "permanently removes Congress from the decision-making process, and threatens the long-time, open and important dialogue between hospitals and their elected officials."
The letter added: "Already, America’s hospitals are paid less than the cost of treating Medicare patients, and although hospitals will not be subject to IPAB decisions until 2020, we are deeply concerned that removing elected officials from the decision-making process could result in even deeper cuts to the Medicare program in the future."
A release by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a co-sponsor of the bill, said the bill is "just one step towards starting over with real healthcare reform that empowers patients instead of beltway bureaucrats."
Here are eight points on how the board will operate:
1. It will be made up of 15 members appointed by the president plus three HHS officials.
2. Beginning in 2012, it will receive $15 million a year for operations.
3. Beginning in 2015, it will direct HHS on specific ways to reduce per-capita Medicare spending in years when spending is expected to exceed target levels.
4. Congress can overrule the board's cuts, but only if it adopts alternatives.
5. The board can cut physician payments but won’t be able to cut hospital payments before 2020.
7. It will submit annual reports on healthcare costs, access, quality and utilization.
8. It will recommend ways to slow spending in the private healthcare market.
Read the AHA release on healthcare reform with link to the letter to Sen. Cornyn.
Read the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act.
Read Sen. Hatch's release.
Read more coverage on the healthcare reform:
- GOP Will Target Independent Payment Advisory Board, Comparative Effectiveness Research in Reform Law
- 6 Ways Republicans Plan to Chip Away at Reform Law After Election
- Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece Says ObamaCare will Gut Medicare, Ax Payments to Hospitals, Physicians