Academy Backs Congressional Physicians Seeking Immediate IPAB Repeal

The Academy is joining hundreds of medical organizations in endorsing a resurgent, bipartisan congressional effort to kill the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Reps. Phil Roe, MD, R-Tenn., and Raul Ruiz, MD, D-Calif., last week renewed their call to fast-track IPAB’s repeal using the Senate’s parliamentary powers.

IPAB is one of the most controversial pieces of the Affordable Care Act, in part because of its ability to arbitrarily enact independent, across-the-board Medicare cuts to physicians and other providers. There is an immediate interest in both parties to take on this issue because other health care reform efforts in Congress are stalled.

The Affordable Care Act requires IPAB to recommend Medicare spending cuts in years when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services determines that Medicare’s growth rate exceeds the agency’s target. So far, this has never taken place. The Academy believes this authority would harm efforts to preserve access for Medicare patients.

Despite fears that IPAB would be triggered for the first time this year, a Medicare trustee report released last week ended that threat. A legislative fix remains necessary to ensure that IPAB isn’t eligible for activation in 2018.

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