500 Groups Urge Congress To Kill IPAB

Pressure continues building to kill Medicare's Independent Payment Advisory Board, with more than 500 organizations banding together to send a letter to Congress on Thursday urging its repeal.

"We all share the conviction that the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) will not only severely limit Medicare beneficiaries' access to care but also increase healthcare costs that are shifted onto employers and working men and women in the private sector," executives from provider, employer, payer and other groups said in a letter from the Healthcare Leadership Council.

The objective of healthcare reform "shouldn't be to arbitrarily cut Medicare spending but rather to achieve better care and improved health outcomes. IPAB is not a mechanism geared to do that," Healthcare Leadership Council President Mary R. Grealy said yesterday in an accompanying announcement.