WASHINGTON — Today’s House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing, “Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: An Examination of the U.S. Provider Landscape,” highlighted the urgent need for lawmakers to address structural problems in the Medicare physician payment system that threaten patient access to surgical care, leaders with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) said Wednesday.
“The American College of Surgeons shares Congress’s important goal of making health care more affordable while ensuring access to high-quality surgical care. However, as lawmakers consider cost-control measures, it is essential they avoid unintended consequences that could limit patients’ access to timely surgery,” said Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, Executive Director and CEO of the ACS. “We have long urged Congress to take comprehensive action to address challenges within Medicare that can restrict access to care and hinder our ability to provide patients with the treatment they need.”
The ACS believes it is essential that we strengthen the surgical workforce, enabling surgeons to keep their practices open and maintain critical access to surgical care for patients. To accomplish these goals, the following actions are critical:
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Enact comprehensive reform of the Medicare physician payment system to provide long-term stability and better reflect the cost and complexity of delivering surgical care.
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Address the flawed “efficiency adjustment” policy, which imposes unjustified reductions to procedural work values and threatens the sustainability of surgical practices.
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Support the specialty physician workforce by advancing policies that address workforce shortages affecting surgeons and other specialists.
Discussions about health care affordability must acknowledge the growing workforce challenges facing specialty care that are driving more surgeons to leave practice. Instability in the Medicare physician payment system, combined with increasing administrative burden and other policy pressures, contributes to physician burnout and threatens the long-term sustainability of the surgical workforce. Specifically, flawed policies enacted in the most recent Medicare Physician Fee Schedule disproportionately harm the specialty workforce and must be addressed to protect patients. Without adequate access to timely, high-quality surgical care, patients with complex or life-threatening conditions will experience poorer outcomes, and overall health care costs will continue to increase.
The inability to effectively address rising costs also hampers data-driven quality improvement efforts. The ACS is a national leader in helping hospitals implement quality programs that reduce complications, improve outcomes, and create greater efficiency. These programs have demonstrated that improving quality also lowers costs by preventing avoidable complications, readmissions, and prolonged hospital stays.
“When you invest in quality, you can make the health care dollar stretch further and that is something I know that everyone in Congress would like to see. We stand ready to work hand in hand with our physician colleagues and Congress to create common sense solutions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our healthcare system to help every patient get the quality care they deserve.” Dr. Turner said.
The ACS thanks the Subcommittee for its attention to the drivers of health care costs in America. As both witnesses and committee members discussed, access to care is critical to strengthen the nation’s health care system. As the world’s leading organization of surgeons who treat the critically ill and injured and work to improve health care outcomes and lower costs for patients every day, the ACS looks forward to working with Congress to advance policies that modernize the Medicare physician payment system, strengthen the surgical workforce, and protect patient access to high-quality surgical care.
