(WASHINGTON, DC) – On Thursday, Congressman Larry Bucshon, M.D. spoke on the House floor urging his colleagues to support H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act. H.R. 2 replaces Medicare’s flawed physician payment formula, the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) with bipartisan, bicameral reforms that help protect the Medicare promise. This unprecedented effort removes the imminent threat of draconian cuts to Medicare providers and moves Medicare away from a volume-based system towards one that rewards value, improving the quality of care for seniors. A section by section analysis of the bill is available here.
“Mr. Speaker today is a great day for America’s seniors.
“After years of flawed Medicare policy, we are finally creating a stable system that ensures Medicare patients will have access to their doctors.
“This new policy will move our Medicare system to one that is based on quality of care that is provided to our nation’s seniors.
“In fact, for the first time in decades, we actually achieve real, structural reforms in the program that will help save this critical program for future seniors.
“I would also like to highlight that this legislation repeals CMS’s flawed policy to eliminate bundled surgical payments.
“Eliminating surgical payment bundles would force doctors to spend more time billing CMS that could be used caring for patients.
“I would like to thank Chairman Pitts and I would also like to congratulate Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader Pelosi, Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Pallone for putting politics aside and putting America’s seniors first.
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Congressman Larry Bucshon, a physician from Southern Indiana, is serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the 114th Congress, Bucshon will serve on the influential House Committee on Energy and Commerce.  The 8th District of Indiana includes all or parts of Clay, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Martin, Owen, Parke, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Sullivan, Vanderburgh, Vermillion, Vigo, and Warrick counties.
