Political Quotes

“There is an old saying, ``you get what you pay for.'' This is true in medicine as in many other fields, and it is why federal healthcare payment policies are so important. The Affordable Care Act made important reforms in this area. We established many new programs to move us away from a healthcare system that rewards volume over value, such as the Hospital Value Based Purchasing program, the Physician Value-Based Payment Modifier, the Medicare Shared Savings Program or ACOs, and the many new payment models being tested under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). Although we have yet to pass final legislation, the bipartisan, bicameral Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) physician payment reform policies we adopted in the House earlier this year would make valuable additional reforms. And the bill before us, the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014, would take another crucial step toward the modernization of Medicare payments to healthcare providers. Post-acute care providers, such as nursing homes, long-term care hospitals, and home health agencies are the logical next providers to undergo payment and delivery system transformations. There is tremendous variation in healthcare spending across post-acute care settings. And there is only inconclusive evidence to support which patients should receive which services in which settings of care.…”