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Hello,
Weekly
Healthcare Reform Update
Senate
Finance Committee begins formal consideration of healthcare reform
legislation
This
week, the Senate Finance Committee began formal consideration of
"America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009." Its version of healthcare
reform legislation. Committee members filed 564 amendments for the Finance
panel to discuss as it considered changes to the bill introduced by the
Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). By Friday afternoon, the committee
had examined 61 amendments.
Prior to
the markup process, MGMA sent a letter to
Finance Committee members expressing our serious concerns about several
provisions in the proposal, including Medicare physician reimbursement, the
independent Medicare commission, advanced diagnostic imaging, medical
malpractice, physician-owned hospitals, administrative simplification and
the Medicare and Medicaid enrollment fee.
The
Finance committee will reconvene on Tuesday, Sept. 29 to continue their
deliberations. If they are successful in approving an amended version of
this bill, the Senate Democratic leadership will work with the chairman of
the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee to combine the two different healthcare reform bills into one
measure. The outcome would then be sent to the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) to determine the official costs of the overall bill prior to
consideration by the full Senate.
Meanwhile,
the House Energy and Commerce Committee met on Wednesday to again consider
healthcare reform proposals, even though the Committee officially marked up
and passed its version of healthcare reform legislation before the August
recess. In a highly unusual move, the Committee passed its bill on July 31,
but vowed to revisit amendments that were slated for consideration before
the Committee ran out of time. There were 55-60 amendments in this
category, and several ultimately passed.
Most of
the amendments that passed were either technical in nature or had
bipartisan support. The Committee passed one amendment to establish grants
encouraging the development of integrated delivery systems. Another would
require transparency of hospital charges and that health plans provide an
estimate of out-of-pocket costs to policyholders. Yet another would require
drug and device manufacturers, group purchasing organizations and
distributors to report physician ownership or investment in their entity.
Of the
amendments that were not passed, some drew heated debate from Committee
members, while others were simply introduced and then withdrawn. One
amendment would have prohibited medical groups from providing Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT) and Positron Emission
Tomography (PET) scans (and possibly other services) in their offices by
enacting a change to the current physician self-referral
("Stark") law. MGMA adamantly opposed this potential encroachment
on the group practice model by communicating to members of the Committee
the negative impact this would have on the ability of medical groups to
offer comprehensive services to their patients in-house. The sponsor of
this proposal ultimately decided to withdraw the amendment, not subjecting
it to a vote.
The
House leadership and the chairmen of the three House Committees of
jurisdiction are in the process of combining their work into one bill for
consideration by the Democratic caucus. As in the Senate, that legislation
must also be formally reviewed by CBO to determine its official costs.
After that, the House legislation will be cleared for floor action. This
process is expected to take several weeks.
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September 28, 2009
Member Resources
Healthcare Reform Resource Center
Medicare Provider Enrollment Toolkit
Red Flags Rule Resource Center
Recovery Audit Contractors Resource Center
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