|
DJP Update 1-21-2010 AMA sent letter today
to Senator Reid regarding SGR; But what about private
contracting without penalty!!
Background: AMA also sent letter on December 21,
2009 to Senator Reid supporting H.R. 3590, the
“Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act,” as amended.
The complete AMA letter can be found at:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/health-system-reform/ama-supports-hr-3590.shtml
Nothing in that posted letter at the link above
about AMA policy of the right of patients and
physicians to privately contract without penalty. That
policy is among the AMA highest advocacy priorities.
Today I have been informed that AMA and AARP sent a
letter to Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi today calling
for permanent repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate
(SGR) formula. To that end, Sen. Reid has placed the
House-passed SGR bill (H.R. 3961) on the Senate
calendar. These efforts come in advance of the
expiration of the two-month SGR “patch”
included in last year’s Defense appropriations
bill (P.L. 111-118); the patch expires February 28,
triggering cuts of over 21 percent in Medicare
physician payment levels absent further action.
Have you seen the letter? It is not on AMA Website
as of tonight and doesn't show up with search engine on
AMA site or on Internet. Do you think you will find AMA
policy about the right of patients and physicians to
privately contract without penalty in that letter? I
doubt it! If not, then AMA fails to learn the lesson of
the need to publicly advocate for this policy as
mandated by the AMA House of Delegates. I look forward
to reading the letter. If you have it, please send me a
copy.
I did get a fax from AMA yesterday urging a call to
my senators asking them to permanently repeal the SGR.
But there was no mention in the fax of the substitute
price-fixing formula and no mention of private
contracting. I assume the letter was sent to all AMA
members.
Of course the SGR needs to be thrown out. But to
replace it with another price-fixing formula does not
solve the problem. We need the right of Americans to
privately contract without penalty. Why should patients
and doctors be denied this part of our liberty? Let
Congress decide what it can pay for services delivered
to patients on government programs and then get out of
the way of liberty and Free Enterprise. With private
contracting without penalty there won't be the
difficulty of finding a doctor! Let competition
reign.
The upset in the U.S. Senate race came about, in my
opinion, because Congress refused to listen and used
the power of the majority to force bills through the
Senate and the House. To me that represents the
arrogance of power and the consequences are seen in the
Massachusetts election. When will AMA make the point to
Congress and in ads to the public about the AMA policy
of private contracting? We wait in vain. How long must
AMA members tolerate this? So sorry to continue
repeating myself!
AMA prestige has been diminished greatly by the
actions of supporting bills in Congress that almost
500,000 physicians are on record in Congress as
opposing. Health System Reform is needed but use AMA
specific policy previously quoted in other DJP Updates.
The ship of Congress is in chaos at this moment and AMA
needs to cut loose our towed AMA ship before it hits
the shoals with the current majority. Let it not be
said that AMA membership got so low in 2010 that AMA
ceased to exist as a membership organization. AMA needs
to exist and it needs the current leadership to stand
tall and stop giving the impression of genuflecting for
political expediency.
---------
Medpage Today has an article today on the topic of
the SGR entitled: "With Time Running Low, AMA, AARP
Push Permanent SGR Fix"
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/18094
Some excerpts:
WASHINGTON -- The American Medical Association (AMA)
was hoping the momentum of healthcare reform would
carry along legislation that would finally repeal the
much-despised sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula
that governs Medicare payments to doctors.
------
The SGR was developed in 1997 as a way to prevent
Medicare payments from growing too quickly. The formula
indexes reimbursements to changes in the gross domestic
product (GDP). But healthcare spending has been growing
much faster than GDP, so applying the SGR formula would
have resulted in actual reimbursement cuts year after
year.
------
"We've had assurances from Sens. Reid and Baucus
that now is the time for a permanent fix," he said,
referring to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and
Finance chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).
-----
The "doctor payment fix" bill passed by the House --
which would replace the SGR formula a with an annual
payment increase equal to 1% more than the growth in
the GDP (2% more for primary and preventive care
physicians) was placed on the Senate's legislative
calendar on Wednesday, but there is no indication of
when the measure will be taken up.
-------
The AMA and AARP, along with the Military Officers
Association of America, hosted a Webcast Thursday with
representatives in states where new TV ads will air,
urging constituents to contact their senators to ask
them to fix how doctors are paid under Medicare.
-------
Both the AMA and AARP publicly supported healthcare
reform. And both groups said they remain hopeful that
reform will still pass, even if it takes longer than
anyone expected.
------
And see CBO report on this issue of H.R. 3961 and
the SGR:
http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10704/hr3961.pdf
---
And so it goes. Exciting times. There will be
winners and losers. Let's hope patients and physicians
are not the main casualties.
Stay well,
Donald
P.S. Stop by http://twitter.com/djpNEWS and sign up
for DJPNEWS to get tweet alerts that may not make it
into DJP Updates.
Also, recent selected DJP Updates can be found at:
http://www.intrepidresources.com/html/djp_update/
Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD
Intrepid Resources® / The Medical Risk Manager Company
5000 West Esplanade Ave., #432
Metairie, Louisiana USA 70006
504-455-5895 office
504-455-9392 fax
DJP@intrepidresources.com
www.intrepidresources.com
www.onleadership.us
This DJP Update goes to 2198 leaders in Medicine
representing all of the State Medical Associations and
over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the
potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
To join the list, send me an email stating "Join DJP
Update" To get off the list, state "Remove DJP Update".
Best to put in Subject line so I can do immediately.
BACK
|
