OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

Date: April 14, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Entitlements and the Safety Net Health Insurance

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Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I want to replace the SGR permanently, but
I also want to do it correctly. This bill has two payment models in the
future. The first 4 years would give physicians a half-percent
increase. In future years, though, CMS would be empowered to issue
qualitative, subjective rules purporting to evaluate physician
performance and patient outcomes.

My amendment would simply extend the half-percent increase
indefinitely. I think there are many reasons to vote for this
amendment. CMS has not effectively used a blunt bureaucratic tool, such
as SGR, so we shouldn't give them a nuance tool; second, CMS itself
predicts we are going to have future doc fixes, which is going to
undermine the stability doctors and patients need; third, the
complexity of the outyear model is going to further drive
consolidation, especially for rural and independent doctors; and,
finally, CBO estimates this bill saves $10 billion.

I urge a ``yes'' vote. Let us have a permanent doc fix that works for
all doctors and patients.

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