Section 10320 of PPACA says the following with my bolding:
An 18-member “Independent Payment Advisory Board” [Sec. 10320(b)] is given the duty, on January 15, 2015 and every two years thereafter, with regard to private health care, to make “recommendations to slow the growth in national health expenditures . . . that the Secretary [of Health and Human Services] or other Federal agencies can implement administratively” [Section 10320(a)(5)(o)(1)(A)]. In turn, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is empowered to impose “quality” AND “efficiency” measures [Section 10304] on health care providers (including hospices, ambulatory surgical centers, rehabilitation facilities, home health agencies, physicians and hospitals) [Section 3014(a) adding Social Security Act Section 1890(b)(7)(B)(I)] which must report on their compliance.
Note the words, "impose" and "must report",how advisory is that?
If that paragraph would not encourage an older physician to plan retirement for 2014, I don't know what would.
Note who is covered-everyone.There may be a loophole for some things but this essentially puts all practitioners, hospitals and all in between at the mercy of whatever the IPAB says and the Secretary of HHS wants to do, imposition wise.
The IPAB is what the IMAB morphs into in 2015. Remember we were reassured that the IPAB will give advice and not control the practice of medicine. What it changes into will have incredible power of what physicians have to do and what they can't do.
The next time you hear a proponent of the health care bill dismiss the charge that is a take-over of medical care, refer them to that section.
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