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1 [i] (April 25, 2023)

handle is hein.amenin/aeiaeov0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Benedic Ippolito Responses to Questions for the Record from Chairman Rodgers, Representative Carter, Representative Crenshaw, and Representative Pallone Jr. on Lowering Unaffordable Costs: Examining Transparency and Competition in Health Care House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health April 2023 Benedic Ippolito, AEI Senior Fellow* The Honorable Cathy McMorris Rodgers 1. I was encouraged to read in the 2023 Medicare Trustees Report that CMS actions, most notably removing hip and knee procedures off the inpatient only list and allowing patients to receive and doctors to perform additional services in the more efficient and less expensive outpatient setting have reduced total Medicare expenditures and contributed to extending the program's solvency a little longer through 2031. How should Congress think about additional actions to enhance patient and provider choices by encouraging more services to be safely administered in the outpatient setting? 1. Would allowing more procedures to be done in outpatient settings, like Ambulatory Surgery Centers, enhance competition among providers and encourage hospitals to compete with ASCs and other hospitals who offer outpatient services? Recent empirical analysis has emphasized the importance of provider competition in moderating the growth of health costs.1 In many areas, competitive concerns are especially pronounced within the inpatient hospital market, placing particular emphasis on procompetitive policies that affect this market. Allowing a greater number of procedures to be done outside of the inpatient setting would generally help improve competition for these types of services. Indeed, one would expect this kind of dynamic to emerge in a well-functioning health care market. As services become less likely to make use of inpatient services, payers would have a strong incentive to encourage enrollees to make use of more competitive, lower-cost settings. It is worth noting that under its current criteria for removing procedures from the IPO list, CMS considers whether most outpatient departments or ASCs are equipped to provide it.2 Thus, one would expect relatively immediate competition from such a change. 2. Does research and existing data suggest patients would still be able to receive quality and safe care for certain additional services in outpatient settings? * The American Enterprise Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational organization and does not take institutional positions on any issues. The views expressed in this document are those of the author. 1 For a discussion, see Loren Adler and Benedic Ippolito Procompetitive Health Care Reform Options for a Divided Congress, American Enterprise Institute and The Brookings Institution (March 16, 2023). 2 See ss

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