On Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the "Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act." (S. 3653), which would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). S. 3653 was co-sponsored by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Tom Coburn (R-OK). This Senate legislation is a companion to the “Medicare Decisions Accountability Act of 2010” (H.R. 4985) the U.S. House of Representatives bill introduced by Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN) on March 25, 2010. Currently more than 40 Representatives have signed on as primary sponsor of H.R. 4985 (learn more).

The IPAB was created by the March passage of the health care reform law “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” and tasked with presenting Congress with comprehensive proposals to reduce excess cost growth and improve quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries. In years when Medicare costs are projected to be unsustainable, the Board’s proposals will take effect unless Congress passes an alternative measure that achieves the same level of savings.

Take Action!
The Society has long been opposed to the IPAB, concerned that it usurps congressional oversight of the Medicare program and that it would greatly limit the ability of Medicare beneficiaries, advocates and providers to work with Congress to improve the program, and make it especially difficult to include coverage for new and better treatments, procedures and technologies. Please contact your legislators via our online Take Action center and ask them to co-sponsor the legislation that will repeal the IPAB:

• Ask your Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 4985, the "Medicare Decisions Accountability Act of 2010"
• Ask your Senator to co-sponsor S. 3653, the "Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act"

More on the IPAB
According to the Congressional Budget Office, IPAB would reduce Medicare spending by $13 billion over the period from 2010 to 2019, with significant saving continuing beyond 2019.

Beginning in 2015, this 15-member board of non-elected officials must recommend Medicare spending cuts to reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare in years when spending exceeds a targeted growth rate. Those recommendations would be implemented unless Congress adopts equally effective alternatives. Congress cannot consider any amendments to the proposals that do not meet the same cost reduction goals (unless both the House and three-fifths of the Senate vote to waive this requirement). If Congress fails to adopt a substitute provision with the same savings by August 15 of each year, the Department of Health and Human Services must implement the IPAB proposal.

On January 11, 2010, the Heart Rhythm Society joined 73 other medical societies in sending a letter to Democratic leaders of Congress opposing the IPAB and requesting the deletion of this provision from the final health care reform legislation. Learn more »