Sebelius comes to IPAB's defense as others line up against it

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius penned an op-ed last week offering a strong defense of the health law's Independent Payment Advisory Board. Meanwhile, however, the American Medical Association has taken an official position against the panel, and 270 other health care organizations sent a letter to members of Congress expressing their opposition too.

Modern Healthcare: Going Public On IPAB
The battle over the Independent Payment Advisory Board heated up this week with a rare public defense of the controversial cost-control board by the Obama administration. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in an op-ed for Politico, defended the 15-member board created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a "backstop to ensure that rising costs don't accelerate out of control, threatening Medicare's stability." She also noted that President Barack Obama's deficit reduction framework, offered in the spring, would "strengthen" the cost-cutting authority of the board (Daly, 6/24).

The Hill: 270 Health Care Groups Back IPAB Repeal
A broad coalition of health care stakeholders lent their support Friday to repealing a controversial cost-cutting panel established under health care reform. All told, some 270 stakeholder groups signed a letter to members of Congress urging them to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB is a panel of experts, appointed by the president, that will have the power to cut Medicare payments (Baker, 6/24).

The Boston Globe: Biotech Fights Medicare Cost Panel
Robert Coughlin faced a busy agenda recently when he landed in Washington. He and a team of Massachusetts life sciences executives attended an evening fund-raiser for Senator John F. Kerry. The next day, he pressed his case to Kerry's staff members. Coughlin's objective: get the Massachusetts Democrat to help torpedo a new government panel designed to reduce Medicare costs. Coughlin, president and chief executive of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, is part of an army of health care industry representatives from Massachusetts and around the country who want to block creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a key piece of President Obama's health care overhaul law (Jan, 6/27).

Fox News: Doctors Group Seeks Repeal Of Medicare Cost-Control Board In Health Law
The nation's largest doctors group this week formally called for the repeal of a key plank in the Democrats' health care overhaul — a new board tasked with reining in the growth of Medicare. The so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board was one of several "defects" in the law that representatives of the American Medical Association voted against at their annual meeting in Chicago (6/25).