Honorable Phil Roe, MD
407 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
RE: H.R.2653 – American Health Care Reform Act of 2015
Dear Representative Roe:
As the Alliance of Specialty Medicine (Alliance), our mission is to advocate for sound federal health care
policy that fosters patient access to the highest quality specialty care. While we do not take a position on
the American Health Care Reform Act of 2015 in its entirety, as patient and physician advocates, the
Alliance supports Title V, Reforming Medical Liability Law. In addition, we support repeal of the
Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and of the value-based modifier so that the physician
community can work to identify measurable and meaningful quality metrics that improve patient care.
The Alliance firmly believes that comprehensive federal medical liability reform is long overdue. The
unpredictability of the current system has led doctors to limit the scope of their practices, move to states
that have effective reforms in place, or leave medical practice altogether. Without reform, patients’
continued access to timely and necessary medical specialty care remains in jeopardy. While tort reforms
such as those in place in California and Texas represent the “gold standard,” we commend your efforts to
explore other options, including a “safe harbor” for care provided in accordance with clinical guidelines.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated application of a value-based modifier (VBM) by 2015. Since
enactment of the ACA, the Alliance has requested a delay in the implementation of the VBM to provide
more time for the evaluation of measures and methodologies that are most appropriate for a range of
practice sizes and types before more widespread implementation. In repealing the VBM, your legislation
would create the opportunity to identify meaningful measures and methodologies along the lines of our
key principles for quality improvement, including to:
- Incentivize meaningful quality improvement, rather than penalize arbitrary indicators of
performance. - Provide an appropriate timetable and make required investments in reforms.
- Give careful consideration to measures of resource use and value-based payments.
- Minimize regulatory burden.
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