American Health Lawyers’ Scholarly Journal Publishes Michael Cook’s Health Care Reform

"By creating the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) as part of the health care reform process, Congress attempted to impose fiscal discipline upon itself by creating limits on the amount of spending under the Medicare program, and by removing the process for meeting those targets from its domain. Each year beginning in 2013, the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will compare the projected average per capita increase in Medicare spending against a target. If the Chief Actuary finds that spending is projected to exceed the target, the IPAB – an independent board – is charged with developing a proposal that will be implemented automatically beginning in January 2015, unless Congress, through an expedited process and super majority vote, either overrides the process or votes in 2017 to disband the board in 2020. This article provides a detailed description and analysis of the provisions that create the IPAB, the process on how it will operate, and the implications of this extremely controversial body." Michael H. Cook, Independent Payment Advisory Board: Part of the Solution for Bending the Cost Curve?, J. HEALTH & LIFE SCI. L., October 2101, at 102.

Because of copyright laws, we are not able to post copies of the article in full on this website. However, for this issue only, the AHLA is selling single copies of the October issue of the Journal. Readers can obtain information on purchasing the article at www.healthlawyers.org/JHLSL.