Representatives Dave Camp and Fred Upton challenge President Obama to provide further details about his own plans for Medicare reform

Natalie Gonnella

As Democrats continue to attack the GOP's 2012 budget proposal, specifically targeting Republican plans for Medicare reform, congressmen Dave Camp and Fred Upton have challenged the administration to step up and "show their own cards" on the issue.

Yesterday in a letter, Camp and Upton called on President Obama to provide further details regarding his plans for changes to Medicare, outlining key points that have yet to be clarified.

With the President having been particularly vague about his own proposal while deliberately attacking conservative reforms, here's a look at what Upton and Camp believe that Congress and the American people have a right to know about the Obama Administration's aims for Medicare:

The Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB): Your policy document mentioned “strengthening” the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

• Do you recommend making all providers subject to IPAB cuts beginning in 2014?
• To what degree do you expect your IPAB ideas will reduce Medicare spending by 2021, 2023, and the subsequent decade? 
• What is the source of those estimates?
• What specifically do you mean by “giving the IPAB additional tools to improve the quality of care while redcing costs, including allowing it to promote value-based benefits designs?” 
• Would this require a statutory change given that IPAB is not currently allowed to consider changes to the Medicare benefit package?

Patient Safety: You touted an initiative your Administration rolled out on Monday to reduce hospital readmissions and hospital-acquired conditions. It appears as though this initiative is simply implementing provisions in the Democrats’ health care overhaul which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates will reduce Meidcare spending by roughly $12 billion over the next decade. Yet your proposal claims this initiative will save $50 billion over this same time period. 

• What is the source of this estimate and how would your proposal specifically change current law?

Medicare Part D: You propose limiting “excessive payments for prescription drugs by leveraging Medicare’s purchasing power” and prohibiting brand-name companies for entering into ‘pay for delay’ agreements with generic companies.” 

• Which specific changes would you make to Medicare Part D and how much do you anticipate each change would save? 
• Are you suggesting Medicaid-style rebates in Part D? If so, for which beneficiaries? 
• Are you proposing repeal of the “non-interference” provision in Part D? You estimate your proposal would reduce Medicare spending by $200 billion over ten years? 
• What is the basis for your savings estimates?

Although the congressmen's questions currently remain unanswered, their full letter to the President can be viewed here and the accomanying press release is available here.