Statement for the Record American College of Physicians 25 Massachusetts Ave, NW Washington, DC 20001 Senate Finance Committee Roundtable Discussion Medicare Physician Payments: Perspectives from Physicians

The American College of Physicians (ACP) applauds Chairman Baucus and Ranking Member Hatch for holding this roundtable discussion and for the committee’s bipartisan efforts in trying to develop a solution to Medicare’s physician payment system, which has been a burden on physician practices for over a decade. We share your view that “we need physicians to suggest changes to the Medicare physician payment system that will spur high quality, high value care.” In that spirit, ACP’s statement will focus primarily on how Congress could build upon physician-led initiatives to transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system. We will discuss delivery and payment reform models that we view as the most promising in any post-Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) environment, as well as noting the kinds of structural and reporting capabilities, payment incentives, and measurement systems needed for them to work.