More than 500 organizations sent a joint letter to Congress last week urging the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
“We all share the conviction that the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) will not only severely limit Medicare beneficiaries’ access to care but also increase healthcare costs that are shifted onto employers and working men and women in the private sector,” executives from provider, employer, payer and other groups said the letter from the Healthcare Leadership Council.
Reform “shouldn’t be to arbitrarily cut Medicare spending but rather to achieve better care and improved health outcomes. IPAB is not a mechanism geared to do that,” Healthcare Leadership Council President Mary R. Grealy said in an accompanying statement.
The appointed 15-person IPAB will have the authority to recommend Medicare spending cuts, which the organizations said likely would be reduced reimbursements to providers. A supermajority in both houses of Congress is required to overturn board recommendations.
