Improving Medicare Post-Acute Transformation Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4994, the IMPACT Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation makes several small changes to improve post-acute care quality measures and reporting systems in Medicare.

This bill will lay the groundwork for future changes that will reform how Medicare pays for post-acute care.

This bill has support across the post-acute care community, including providers and beneficiaries.

This bill is budget neutral. In short, this is an innocuous bill.

Yet, the bottom line is this:

Congress must do more than pass small, innocuous bills. My constituents in Seattle--and constituents from coast to coast--are coping with a list of growing challenges.

Yet, this Congress is content to push the urgent work of tackling these challenges to another day.

Seniors, patients and doctors need Congress to find a permanent fix for the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate formula in Medicare.

American seniors deserve greater safety and security, but Congress' most recent SGR patch--thrown together last Spring--expires in March.

By then, Congress--just like the 17 times before--will be up against an urgent deadline and flailing to find a permanent solution.

American families need Congress to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program.

More than 8 million children and pregnant women access affordable health coverage through CHIP.

But federal funding faces a cliff next year, and this Congress isn't doing anything about it.

America needs a reenergized primary care workforce.

By 2020, our nation's health system will be staggered by a shortage of 45,000 primary care doctors.

But this Congress isn't talking about extending Medicaid payment parity before it expires in December.

This Congress isn't talking about reauthorizing the National Health Service Corps.

And this Congress certainly isn't talking about new ideas like R-DOCS--a program, modeled on our military's ROTC program, to train and place new primary care doctors where they are needed most.

Yes, we might pass legislation like the IMPACT Act this week. But the American people demand and deserve bolder action and bigger results from their Congress.

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