Protecting Seniors’ Access to Medicare Act May Positively Impact RARE Community

We applaud Congressman Rowe for introducing the Protecting Seniors’ Access to Medicare Act, which would eliminate the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

As conceived in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA [P.L.  111-148]), IPAB is an appointed panel whose role is to make binding recommendations to cut Medicare spending when program costs grow faster than levels specified in the Act.

This issue, though it is primarily Medicare-oriented, is important to our rare community because the private market generally follows payment trends set by Medicare.  Any decrease in payments within the Medicare program could very likely extend to the private insurance market, negatively impacting patients who rely on their private medical coverage for the treatments they need.