A Good Deal for Medicare (Sen. Max Baucus)

Sen. Baucus is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Most folks wouldn’t pay a plumber who left the faucet dripping, or a mechanic who didn’t get the engine running quite right.  Americans value quality and keep an eye out for bargains.  That’s why I’ve been fighting to get a good health care deal for American taxpayers for more than thirty years.

Today, hospitals that report data on their performance — even facilities reporting poor performance — receive increased reimbursement from Medicare just for making the effort.  Congress has asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services for a plan that would increase reimbursement only for hospitals that deliver high-quality or improved quality care.  On Thursday, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and I convened a roundtable to look at ways to institute value-based purchasing of hospital care for Medicare beneficiaries.  We heard from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the details of the Secretary’s plan.  Experts from the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and a wide range of other key healthcare stakeholders participated in a very productive discussion about those and other value-based purchasing ideas.

There is a lot of potential in creating a closer link between Medicare payments and providing more effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, equitable, and safer care.  Incentives can drive providers toward these goals and eliminate waste in the health care system.  This is a strategy that has already shown an ability to improve care for patients and reduce costs in pilot programs.

Still, we must proceed with caution.  Experts in the health care field do have varying views about the best way to implement a value-based purchasing program.  Quality is vital, but our efforts must not overburden hospitals, especially safety net facilities in rural and underserved areas that already face significant financial burdens.  We should continue studying this issue carefully and seeking the best ways to measure performance, set standards, structure payments, and implement a program that achieves the goals we set.

Ensuring the best care for Medicare beneficiaries and increasing value in Medicare are excellent goals that I will continue to pursue.  But much remains to be discussed, explored, and decided.  I look forward to making sure the Finance Committee is an important part of that discussion as we begin to consider big-picture health care reform in the coming weeks and months.