The Honorable John Cornyn
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Cornyn:
As the Alliance of Specialty Medicine (Alliance), our mission is to advocate for sound federal health policy that fosters
patient access to the highest quality specialty care. As patient and physician advocates, the Alliance supports your
legislation, S. 141, the “Protecting Seniors’ Access to Medicare Act“ which would repeal the Independent Payment
Advisory Board (IPAB) authorized under the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148 and P.L. 111-152).
The Alliance strongly opposes the IPAB or any other board resulting in an inappropriate delegation of Congress’
oversight responsibilities. Significant health care decisions must not be made by a group of unelected, unaccountable
individuals with little or no clinical expertise or the oversight required to protect access to care for America’s seniors.
The Alliance is concerned that the IPAB will arbitrarily ratchet down provider reimbursement, without sufficient
oversight and without care taken to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries receive the quality health care that they need
and deserve. Further, the Board is required to selectively exempt certain providers from its purview – placing more
pressure to cut Medicare reimbursements in areas under its jurisdiction.
The Alliance understands and appreciates concerns with the rising costs of health care. However, the process and
structure of the IPAB is fraught with potential unintended consequences and the IPAB lacks the clinical expertise and the
research capacity to examine the national and regional effects of proposed recommendations to ensure patients are not
unduly impacted. We therefore strongly support your legislation.
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