Boustany calls for 'smarter' regulation

Hospitals and other providers need “smarter,” more streamlined regulations to help them improve care in a rapidly changing health care environment, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-LA, today told attendees at the AHA Annual Membership Meeting. Appearing from Louisiana via satellite, the House Ways and Means Committee member said he wants “Medicare to work smarter and better for you and your patients.” That includes reforming the Medicare recovery audit contractor program. He called RACs a “bureaucracy run rampant, abusing the system and gumming up the works.” Boustany cited his support in the previous Congress for the SMARTER – Standard Merger and Acquisition Reviews Through Equal Rules – Act, which is designed to create a fairer federal antitrust review process. He said he supported the recent enactment of legislation repealing and replacing the physician sustainable growth rate formula because it would provide stable, value-based reimbursements for physicians and aid rural hospitals through measures such as extending the Medicare-dependent hospital and low-volume adjustment programs. But he expressed concern about cutting hospital reimbursements to help pay for the new legislation. “It should never be done on the backs of other providers,” he said.