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Please Contact your Senators to fix the SGR DGR requests that APA members call their Senators to support the Medicare Physician Fairness Act of 2009 (S.1776). Unless Congress acts, the Medicare payment update for physicians will be cut by 21 percent on January 1, 2010. The Senate Finance Committee health reform bill includes another one-year postponement of the cut. This is welcome but Congress needs to get rid of the SGR formula causing these huge cuts permanently.
Call your Senators using APA's toll-free Hotline: 1-866-727-4894. You will be connected to the Capitol Hill Operator. Ask for your Senators by name. Once you are connected to your Member's office, leave your name and address, along with our suggested message: "As a psychiatric physician and your constituent, I'm asking Senator __________ to vote "Yes" on all votes to pass S. 1776, the Medicare Physician Fairness Act of 2009. Vote to fix the SGR now." |
| Senate Finance Votes in Favor of Health Legislation
On October 13, the Senate Finance Committee passed out of committee its version of the Health Reform Bill. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) was the only Republican who voted for the legislation, which passed 14-9. On October 7, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their cost estimate of the Senate Finance Committee's amended health legislation. The estimate puts the cost at $829 billion over a decade and would cover 94 percent of legal residents by 2015, reducing the number of uninsured in the United States by 29 million. The vote will open the door to blending the Finance Bill with a bill (S. 1679) approved by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in July. Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) will lead those talks, which are also expected to include the White House. |
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Legislation Narrowing FTC 'Red Flag' Rules Moves Directly to House Vote
The House is slated to vote on legislation to clarify that small physician practices are not part of a broadly defined mix of "creditors" that must implement identity theft prevention programs. H.R. 3763, introduced by Representative John Adler (D-NJ), would exclude health care, accounting, and legal practices with 20 or fewer employees from the list of creditors that FTC rules require to develop programs that identify relevant patterns, practices, and specific activities that are "red flags" for possible identity theft by November 1. APA has joined AMA and many other medical specialties in opposing the regulation as it applies to physician practices. |
