- Joined
- Apr 21, 2009
- Messages
- 1,143
- Reaction score
- 62
Glenn M. Hackbarth, head of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, would have more power in a proposed new agency.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/health/policy/14medpac.html?_r=1&ref=health
August 13, 2009
WASHINGTON — As chairman of one of the more obscure federal agencies, Glenn M. Hackbarth is little known outside the world of health care and his hometown, Bend, Ore. If President Obama has his way, Mr. Hackbarth could become one of the most important people in government, with the power to say how Medicare spends more than $450 billion a year.
But the president's proposal to create a potent rate-setting body modeled on Mr. Hackbarth's agency, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, is meeting resistance from lawmakers, doctors, hospitals and even some advocates for older Americans.
Mr. Obama's proposal would transform the agency, known as Medpac, which has just 36 employees and a budget of $10.5 million, and typically holds seven meetings a year in a nondescript conference room in the Ronald Reagan Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
In annual reports to Congress, the existing commission recommends Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and other health care providers. Recommendations of the proposed new entity, like those of military-base closing commissions, could take effect unless blocked by Congress.
Under the White House plan, the new agency would also propose broader "reforms to the Medicare program." Mr. Obama even suggested, in a recent speech to the 50-and-over advocacy group AARP, that the new agency could compare the effectiveness of treatments for particular conditions. The agency, he said, could "provide recommendations about what treatments work best and what gives you the best value for your health care dollar."
Doctors and hospital executives are lobbying against the plan, fearful that the new agency would cut their Medicare payments.
snip
