Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX) hosted Congressman Larry Bucschon, M.D, for a conversation on the history of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA).
MACRA: How American Health Care Went From Volume to Value
Doctor in the House
Listen to full episode here.
Highlights:
Burgess: “For the first four years [after MACRA became law], Republicans controlled Congress, and the Energy and Commerce Committee, so the Subcommittee on Health and Subcommittee on Oversight did do its work and do his due diligence. As well as when Paul Ryan was speaker, he did a big budget bill. There were some things that got altered in MACRA. But then it's like the world came to an end when Democrats came to power. And they haven't had a single hearing on this. In over four years now, Republicans are backing the charge. I'm glad to say. So once again, we are prepared this week to have another hearing on the implementation. But can you speak to that why it's necessary to have Congress continue to look at a broad process after it's been passed, signed into law gone over to the agency to be implemented?”
Bucshon: “Well, I mean, to your point, regardless of whether it's healthcare related or any other large piece of legislation relating to our economy, you have to have long term, bipartisan engagement from the Congress, because the healthcare system, as you know, is complicated. It's very fluid, things change in the healthcare system, all the time situations change, we've seen that with a lot of consolidation since the Affordable Care Act. We've seen more and more physicians being employed now versus independent, individual practices. So how does that affect the ability of MACRA to work? How does that affect that the quality program the MIPS program, how does that affect the ability to create alternative payment models? So, you know, the suit fluidness system needs ongoing evaluation by the Congress to see him and getting information.”
Burgess: "One of the things that as we did the bill 10 years ago, there was a significant move, or that it was an attempt for a significant move from volume to value. And everybody talked about it. We wanted value-based care, we wanted to understand what we're paying for, we wanted to pay for what the patients needed.”
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