Trusting Government: A Tale of Two Federal Advisory Groups

Americans increasingly distrust what they perceive as poorly run and conflicted government. Yet rarely can we see far enough inside the federal apparatus to examine what works and what doesn’t, or to inspect how good and bad decisions come to pass. Comparing the behaviors of two influential federal advisory bodies provides valuable lessons about how the mechanisms that drive government decisions can instill or diminish public trust...

...By contrast, and despite its immense influence over Medicare and commercial health expenditures, the RUC proceedings are opaque. Its meetings are closed to the public – participation requires an invitation from the Chair – and transcripts are not publicly available. Members vote secretly by electronic ballot, and the AMA discards records of the votes. Still, CMS has accepted more than 90 percent of the RUC’s 7,000 recommendations since 1991, often without further due diligence.

The RUC is also rife with conflict. Until 2009 the AMA would not reveal the RUC members’ names. While primary care physicians represent some 55% of all doctors, 27 of the RUC’s 29 members are specialists effectively lobbying their specialist societies’ interests. Roy Poses MD, who studies financial conflicts in medicine, recently wrote, “14 of 29 members of the RUC have financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, device companies, companies that directly provide health care, and health care insurance companies.” None of these are publicly disclosed as a condition of RUC membership. Nor is there any publicly available record of whether real or potential conflicts of interest have caused RUC members to recuse themselves from votes.

These two advisory models represent different frameworks for operationalizing federal policy. The RUC’s secretive membership and proceedings hinder scrutiny. CMS near-total reliance on a clandestine special interest group is precisely the kind of governmental behavior that the public no longer trusts...