Obama proposal for new Medicare panel meets with resistance — MedCity Morning Read, Aug. 14, 2009

AARP tele-town hall meeting on health care, June 28, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Glenn M. Hackbarth is chairman of one of the more obscure federal agencies — the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, better known as MedPAC, according to the New York Times.

But if President Obama has his way, Hackbarth and his commission would be given the power to say how Medicare, the federal insurance program for the elderly and disabled, spends $450 billion a year, the Times said.

And that is making some lawmakers, doctors, hospitals and even some advocates for older Americans rather uncomfortable, according to the Times. Obama’s health care reform proposal would transform the agency with 36 workers, an annual budget of $10.5 million and that typically meets seven times a year in a nondescript Washington conference room, the Times said.

Today, the agency recommends Medicare payments for doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers. That’s recommendations. Obama proposes that the agency take on powers like those of military-base closing commissions — its changes would take effect unless blocked by Congress, according to the Times.

Under the White House plan, a new, beefier MedPAC would be able to propose broad reforms to Medicare and maybe even compare the effectiveness of various treatments, Obama told AARP, the advocacy group for senior citizens, during a tele-townhall meeting on health care reform on June 28, the Times said.

Health economists and fiscal “hawks” — people who want to cut federal spending — have welcomed the proposal because it could lead to smaller federal deficits and slower growth for Medicare. But congressional lawmakers are concerned the reconsituted commission would take too much of their power to set Medicare payment policies. And doctors and hospitals are lobbying against the plan because they think it could reduce their Medicare reimbursements.

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