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A panel of healthcare organization leaders voiced concerns about moving Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) to two-sided risk too quickly, as proposed in a recent federal draft rule, and highlighted the need for Stark Law reform during a U.S. House of Representatives Health subcommittee hearing last week.
The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee on Health held a hearing last Thursday examining the barriers to expanding value-based care in Medicare, and panelists used the opportunity to voice concerns to lawmakers about a number of polices and laws that they believe are impeding progress in the transition to value-based care and payment models.
Subcommittee chairman Michael Burgess, M.D. (R-Texas) said the purpose of the hearing was to focus on the evolving transition to value-based care as well as new ways of assuming risk, and the role technology can play in these efforts. In his opening statement, Burgess recognized that value-based care models have been effective at improving quality and lowering costs. “These models are the future of heath care, and it is important that Congress hear from the industry about how the implementation of such models work on the ground or, to the extent it’s not working, it’s important that we hear that as well,” he said.