WASHINGTON, DC - The Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA), has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, April 19, 2016, at 10:15 a.m. in room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015: Examining Physician Efforts to Prepare for Medicare Payment Reforms." The hearing will be the sequel to a March 10, 2016 hearing on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015.
MACRA was the bipartisan product of a multi-year effort to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula which was a flawed payment system that required Congress to implement temporary fixes for over a decade. Permanently fixing the formula and protecting seniors’ access to their Medicare physicians had been a top priority for the Energy and Commerce Committee.
A bipartisan and bicameral agreement was formed around the policy to repeal and replace the SGR, and coupled with a package of health related provisions including Medicare extenders, an extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicare savings that were together merged into MACRA. The bill overwhelmingly passed both chambers last year, and was signed into law on April 16, 2015.
The subcommittee recently held a hearing examining the work being done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and next week’s hearing will build on that. Subcommittee members will hear from physician organizations and their members on how they are preparing today for the successful implementation.
“We recently heard from CMS about how implementation is proceeding, and reviewed what action it had taken to prepare for this implementation; we were able to express bipartisan agreement on areas where we hope CMS will take notice," said Pitts. “This second hearing will allow us to engage the physicians treating patients, see how they are preparing for implementation, hear how they plan to actively participate in making MACRA a success, and be informed by them on best practices and resources."
The Majority Memorandum, a witness list, and witness testimony will be available here as they are posted. Related Items
* Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015: Examining Physician Efforts to Prepare for Medicare Payment Reforms
See Also
* Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015: Examining Physician Efforts to Prepare for Medicare Payment Reforms
