The House of Representatives has voted 223-181 to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) for Medicare, and to restrict medical malpractice lawsuits.
The measure is known as H.R. 5, the Protecting Access to Healthcare Act, and is sponsored by Rep. Phil Gingrey, MD (R-Ga.). It would eliminate the IPAB, the 15-member independent panel created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Starting in 2015, the IPAB would be tasked with making binding recommendations on how to reduce Medicare spending. If Congress doesn’t agree with the recommended cuts, it would be required to pass its own cuts of the same size.
But Republicans, along with some Democrats, oppose the concept, saying it would lead to rationing of medical care. The Obama Administration has noted that under the law, the IPAB is prohibited from recommending changes to Medicare that ration health care, restrict benefits, modify eligibility, increase cost-sharing, or raise premiums or revenues.
Several prominent Democrats voiced support for the IPAB repeal earlier in the month, including Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania, who also authored legislation to repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for physician reimbursement under Medicare. However, after House Republicans added a provision to the IPAB bill that limited the amounts of damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits to $250,000, Democratic support appeared to disappear.
Historically, Democrats (including President Obama) oppose caps on medical malpractice lawsuits. Republicans said the malpractice cap would discourage frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals.
The American Medical Association (AMA), which supports the ACA as a whole but opposes the IPAB, praised the House vote.
“We applaud the House for voting to eliminate the IPAB, a panel which would have too little accountability and the power to make indiscriminate cuts that adversely affect access to health care for patients,” said Jeremy Lazarus, MD, president-elect of the AMA. “This new, arbitrary system is not what we need when patients and physicians are already struggling with a looming cut of nearly 30 percent from the broken Medicare physician payment formula.”
The group also spoke in favor of the medical malpractice provision of the bill.
However, the bill is likely dead on arrival in the Senate, and the White House threatened to veto the bill if it does pass the Senate. Obama has called the IPAB a crucial component for restraining the growing cost of Medicare.
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(Link last retrieved March 23, 2012)
