Sen. Rockefeller Proposes Giving MedPAC Broader Authority On Medicare Payment Decisions

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 20 Mar 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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Senate Finance Health Subcommittee Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday proposed granting jurisdiction over Medicare reimbursement decisions to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, CongressDaily reports.

According to CongressDaily, lawmakers face pressure from campaign contributors in the health care industry when they attempt to set reimbursement rates. "It's not pretty; it's not quality; it's not American medicine the way it should be," Rockefeller said. He added, "You take a MedPAC and give them the money and the time to ... go all around the country and they can dissect health care. To me, they're a lot better deal than having Congress do it and politics do it."

Rockefeller said that his proposal fails to connect a reimbursement-setting commission to improving quality of care. He added that the organizations that set quality standards for health care providers need greater coordination and perhaps even a central health care position. Rockefeller said, "We need an entity at the federal level that coordinates public and private health care quality efforts," adding that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality can "fulfill that responsibility even more than it does now -- and we should give AHRQ greater authority and resources to do so."

Rockefeller's suggestion "faced defiance from other agencies that bristled at the hint of a turf battle," CongressDaily reports. Marjorie Kanof, managing director of health care for the Government Accountability Office, said, "I'm glad [Rockefeller thinks] so highly of MedPAC, since it is GAO that appoints them." Carolyn Clancy, director of AHRQ, said, "The idea of having that independent expertise has a lot to do with the mission of AHRQ" (Edney, CongressDaily, 3/19).

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