Dear Representatives Roe and Ruiz,
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. As patient and physician advocates, the Alliance supports
your bipartisan legislation, H.J.Res.51, approving the discontinuation of the process for consideration and automatic
implementation of the annual proposal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).
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.
We strongly support your legislation and stand ready to work with you toward passage.
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