WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) released the following joint statement on the Medicare physician payment proposal announced by the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committee:
“We are pleased to see the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committee are moving forward in a bipartisan fashion, mirroring many of the quality and delivery system reforms in the bill our committee passed unanimously in July. Today’s announcement is good news. We look forward to working with our colleagues to enact a permanent solution that protects beneficiaries, moves Medicare to paying for value not volume, and incentivizes new models of care in Medicare this year."
Background
In July, the Energy and Commerce Committee approved, by a vote of 51-0, H.R. 2810, the Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act, a fair, transparent and bipartisan bill to repeal the broken sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) and replace it with a system that promotes the highest quality of care for America’s seniors while providing physicians with the certainty that they need to run their practices.