McDermott Files Legislation to Reform Medicare's Reliance on the RUC

Press Release

Responding to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) today reintroduced legislation to reform how Medicare pays for physician services. The report, required by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act, found numerous deficiencies in the processes utilized by the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC), a specialist-dominated panel responsible for recommending Medicare physician payment rates.

"For too long, Medicare has relied upon a flawed process to set payment rates for services on the physician fee schedule," said Congressman McDermott. "Through our overreliance on the RUC, a secretive committee controlled by the American Medical Association, we have exacerbated income disparities that have driven too many young physicians away from primary care and into lucrative specialties. The GAO's recent findings add further evidence to the need to reform this system to ensure that physician services are valued fairly and accurately."

The Accuracy in Medicare Physician Payment Act of 2015, filed today by Congressman McDermott, will reform Medicare's reliance on the RUC by bringing oversight, transparency, and accountability into the process of valuing physician services. It will establish an independent panel of experts within CMS that will identify distortions in payment rates and help Medicare develop evidenced-based updates to the fee schedule. The panel's processes will be highly transparent and will be subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires advisory bodies to hold open meetings and publish minutes.

This legislation is based on a recommendation by the nonpartisan Medicare Payment Advisory Committee. Congressman McDermott first filed the Accuracy in Medicare Physician Payment Act in 2013.

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