Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this hearing.
Promoting quality is critical to the millions of beneficiaries who receive care in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, and other settings covered under Part A.
I’m hopeful that we can have a constructive conversation about this issue and work together to find a path forward to achieve value by putting the needs of patients first.
We have made substantial bipartisan progress recently, and we need to build on our successes.
Last year, we came together to enact MACRA. This landmark reform repealed the SGR and has already started the process of transforming how we pay physicians under Medicare.
And in the Part A space, we have begun to lay the groundwork for payment reform by passing the IMPACT Act, which will give us the data we need to promote quality in post-acute care settings.
These are significant, bipartisan achievements that will help us continue to move toward a value-based system that rewards efficient, high-quality care.
They will make Medicare stronger and save billions of dollars.
But improving value is not just about reducing costs - it’s also about improving outcomes in ways that have real consequences for patients.
We face a crisis in this country that this Subcommittee rarely discusses.
Every year, between 210,000 and 440,000 Americans die in the hospital setting due to preventable medical error - including 180,000 Medicare beneficiaries in 2010 alone.
Preventable medical errors are now the third leading cause of death.
We must recognize that achieving value isn’t all about cutting costs - it’s also about helping patients and saving lives.
Payment reforms that put patients first and incorporate sound quality improvement measures are an important part of how we can address this problem.
Unfortunately, our Republican colleagues are not always in agreement with us on this issue.
The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, for example, cut the number of hospital readmissions by 565,000 from 2010 to 2015.
Likewise, the Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program has saved Medicare $19.8 billion. And - most importantly - it has prevented the deaths of at least 87,000 beneficiaries.
Yet every Republican here today has called for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, including these lifesaving initiatives that are already improving the quality of health care provided by hospitals.
Similarly, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is testing exciting new payment models that could show us a path forward in the health care system.
The data and evidence that the Innovation Center is gathering will be critical to informing our conversation about delivery system reform.
Yet Speaker Ryan, the former Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has proposed a Republican agenda that singles out this program for elimination.
If we are having a serious conversation about the evolution of quality in Medicare Part A, and if we are serious about addressing these issues in a bipartisan way, my colleagues on the other side need to recognize what’s happening right before their eyes.
Quality in Part A is already evolving - and it’s thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
Let’s work together to build on this success.
