Congressman: Regulators risk making a 'debacle' out of bipartisan health law provision

Federal regulators tasked with launching one of the few bipartisan provisions of Democrats' healthcare reform law are on the verge of creating a "debacle of enormous proportions," Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) wrote Wednesday in The Hill's special section on healthcare.

The regulation in question has to do with Accountable Care Organizations, which aim to reward doctors and hospitals who work together to improve patient care. The health law seeks to encourage such partnerships, but many of the nation's leading healthcare systems say a proposed regulation issued in March is too onerous to be workable.

"From the burdensome startup costs, overbearing regulations, continuous antitrust threats and more than doubling the number of metrics that even [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services'] best trial struggled to meet, CMS is facing a debacle of enormous proportions the implications of which could be staggering," Burgess wrote.

"The final rule could come out at any time, and I only hope that the agency completely scraps the approach taken in the proposed rule. We still have a chance to realize the promise of ACOs but that window of opportunity is closing — and CMS shouldn’t be the one to slam that window shut."

Also in Wednesday's healthcare section, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) announced that she plans to introduce legislation next week that would expand comprehensive sex ed in elementary and secondary schools and universities "to ensure federal funds are spent on effective, age-appropriate, medically accurate programs." The legislations is part of Democrats' push back against a wave of anti-abortion efforts in Congress and the states.

And GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) urged reforms to the tax treatment of insurance, including a "reasonable cap" on tax-free health benefits provided through employers. The resulting increase in tax revenues, she writes, "should be used to apply a similar tax break for people who buy private coverage."