The Independent Payment Advisory Board — Congress’s “Good Deed” | Health Policy and Reform

The Independent Payment Advisory Board — Congress’s “Good Deed” | Health Policy and Reform:

"Among the most important attributes of legislative statesmanship is self-abnegation — the willingness of legislators to abstain from meddling in matters they are poorly equipped to manage. The law creating the Federal Reserve embodied that virtue. Congress recognized the abiding temptation to use monetary policy for political ends and realized that it would, at times, prove irresistible. To save themselves from themselves, wise legislators created an organization whose funding and operations were largely beyond the reach of normal legislative controls. Short of repealing the law, Congress denied itself the power to do more than kibbitz about monetary policy.

"In establishing the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) in section 3403 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Congress may once again have shown such statesmanship. For several reasons, however, it is too early to be sure. The board must surmount major challenges — first to survive and then to function effectively. Harold Pollack has neatly summarized the problem, the solution, and the problem with that solution: “Every Democratic and Republican policy expert knows that we must reduce congressional micromanagement of Medicare policy. Unfortunately, every Democratic and Republican legislator knows that mechanisms such as IPAB that might do so would thereby constrain their own individual prerogatives.”1

"Medicare’s founding legislation stated that “Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize any Federal officer or employee to exercise any supervision or control over the practice of medicine.”2 Duly warned, Medicare administrators have largely forborne from using coverage policy or financial incentives to discourage ineffective or needlessly costly methods of care. Members of the legislative branch have not, however, displayed similar restraint. They have pressured those same administrators on coverage policies and passed laws to impose them.

"In the view of many observers, both executive inactivity and legislative intrusiveness have been unfortunate — the former because the leverage that the country’s largest single buyer of health care could wield to effect reforms has gone largely unused, the latter because few members of Congress are well enough informed to make such decisions wisely, and some are in thrall to campaign contributors and producers and suppliers of medical services."

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