Health Care Reform

House Set to Vote on MLR and IPAB Combo Bill
March 20, 2012

imageThe U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week on a composite bill, H.R. 5, which seeks to both repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and achieve federal medical liability reform (MLR).  While H.R. 5 was originally introduced as an MLR bill, language was recently added to the legislation to repeal the IPAB.

In addition to repealing the unpopular PPACA-established panel, H.R. 5 would cap punitive damages in medical lawsuits at $250,000, limit contingency fees and other payments to lawyers and install other reforms aimed at reining in legal actions against doctors.  According to House leadership, these reforms would reduce government healthcare spending by about $50 billion over ten years. The savings achieved could easily pay for the cost of IPAB repeal which is projected to cost $3 billion. Excess funds will be directed towards deficit reduction.

Although IPAB repeal is a bipartisan initiative, the decision to add MLR to IPAB repeal efforts will likely yield a partisan vote on the bill.

 
 
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