Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5347, the Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act, which was introduced by two of my good friends, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Buchanan) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Panetta).

Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense, bipartisan bill to improve care for Medicare patients while reducing burdens on healthcare providers. The bill does this by expanding quality reporting options for accountable care organizations.

These organizations, accountable care organizations, are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals who work together with the aim of providing better care to patients on Medicare. They do this by coordinating their efforts and sharing information with one another rather than working separately.

These organizations were created under the Affordable Care Act to improve healthcare quality and to lower costs. When an accountable care organization is able to improve care and reduce costs, they get to share in the savings generated.

The legislation would provide for a wider variety of quality measure reporting methods to be used in Medicare through the year 2029. It also creates a digital quality measure pilot program to ensure that any transition to digital quality measures continues to assess care quality and reduce burdens for providers.

The Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act is supported by the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations, America's Physician Groups, Epic Systems, Oracle Health, Accountable for Health, and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Doctors in my district tell me, like many of my colleagues, all the time that they want to spend more time caring for their patients and less time with paperwork and medical records systems. Today's physicians are bogged down in insurance paperwork and are severely underpaid because Medicare reimbursement rates have not kept up with the rate of inflation.

Physicians work incredibly hard every day to care for us and our loved ones in our communities, and they deserve to be supported so that they can continue to provide quality care for patients across the country.

This bill is a step toward ensuring that physicians have the support they need to provide the best care possible for their parents. The Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act received unanimous support from the members of the House Ways and Means Committee, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill on the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5347, the Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act, is a commonsense, bipartisan bill to provide more flexibility when accountable care organizations report on the care they provide to their patients.

This bill ensures that the CMS provides a smooth transition as it improves these reporting requirements, thereby reducing confusion and administrative burdens for physicians who are with us at the most vulnerable times in our lives.

While Congress continues to work on other legislation to address physician payment issues and more, I urge my colleagues to support this bill that Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Panetta have worked on together in a bipartisan fashion. I yield back the balance of my time.

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