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Weekly Healthcare Reform Update
Negotiations
under way to find healthcare reform compromise
Despite
Congress being in recess until Jan. 19, negotiations over a final version
of healthcare reform legislation have been under way in earnest since just
after the Senate bill passed on Christmas Eve. The president and members of
his administration have been meeting with House and Senate Democratic
leaders to informally resolve major policy differences between the bills
passed in the first session of the 111th Congress.
Normally,
such differences are resolved in a formal conference committee comprised of
representatives from both chambers and both parties working together to
reach a consensus. In this case, due to the extreme partisan nature and the
parliamentary delaying tactics used to date, Democratic leaders in the
Senate chose to avoid another series of time-consuming cloture votes
necessary to formally name the conference committee members. As of today,
the House intends to consider the Senate bill with some changes that are
acceptable to the majority of its members and then return the amended bill
to the Senate in an attempt to expedite final passage.
Before
that can be accomplished, Democrats must reconcile major differences
remaining between the two versions of legislation. These differences
include, but are not limited to: financing of the legislation, reforming
the healthcare delivery system for the uninsured and underinsured, the cost
of premiums, and restricting the use of federal funds for abortion.
The many
different interests of MGMA members also need to be resolved as this
legislation is finalized. Chief among these is the issue of permanent
repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. While the House has
passed this repeal (H.R. 3962), the Senate failed earlier to overcome a
procedural 60-vote hurdle to allow for the full chamber’s consideration.
The 21.2 percent cut to physician payments, which was scheduled to take
effect on Jan. 1, was abated for 60 days when the president signed a Defense
Department appropriations bill that included a delay.
Public
statements and assurances by administration officials and members of the
Democratic leadership reflect a commitment to addressing the issue. We
recommend that all MGMA members access the Advocacy
Center to remind their Senators to pass this important legislation now.
In addition
to the SGR issue, MGMA is advocating for changes to multiple provisions in
each bill. We have summarized these issues for MGMA members and categorized
them in a chart
organized by MGMA’s Healthcare Reform principles. These include our
concerns with the proposed Independent Payment Advisory Board, punitive
physician quality reporting initiative measures, public reporting of
physician data, limits on physician-owned hospitals, unnecessarily
expansive fraud and abuse changes, and imaging changes, among
others.
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Jan. 11, 2010
Member Resources
Healthcare Reform Resource Center
Medicare Provider Enrollment Toolkit
Physician Quality Reporting Initiative Resource Center
Recovery Audit Contractors Resource Center
Consultation Codes Resource Center
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