Late Breaking News: No cloture vote on Monday, but calls and e-mails still needed from TMA members to Senators Hutchison and Cornyn in support of S 1776.
The Texas Medical Association urges members to contact U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn today and ask them to support S 1776, the "Medicare Physicians Fairness Act of 2009," which will be the subject of several critical votes in the Senate during the week of Monday, Oct. 19.
"Tell them that this is not a partisan vote," said TMA President William H. Fleming III, MD. "This is a vote for patients. It is crucial that S 1776 pass these tests."
The votes will be on S 1776 by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) [PDF] Senate leadership announced that S 1776 will serve as the vehicle for eliminating Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and laying the foundation for establishing a new Medicare physician payment update system.
S 1776 repeals the SGR formula and eliminates the $245 billion debt that has accumulated under the current payment system [PDF]. It provides for no increase – or decrease – in Medicare payments in coming years. The Senate leadership made it very clear that this is just the first step toward Medicare payment reform. Passing this bill will ease budget constraints on future bills. This will allow a new physician payment system to be incorporated into a broader health system reform bill. The details of that future system have not yet been worked out.
"Unless we fill in the $245 billion budget hole now, we have no hope for permanent Medicare payment reform," Dr. Fleming said. "Without some action by Congress now, physicians' Medicare payments will be cut by 21.5 percent beginning Jan. 1. Every year that passes without elimination of the SGR brings about the potential for even deeper cuts the following year."
Dr. Fleming asked TMA members to use the TMA Grassroots Action Center to remind both senators that they have supported repeal of the SGR in the past. Remind them that this bill helps military families, too, who rely on TRICARE.
TMA wants the senators from Texas to:
- Vote "YES" to waive the budget act.
- Vote "YES" on final passage of S 1776.
"Explain what would happen to Medicare patients should the 21.5-percent cut take place in January," Dr. Fleming said. "Explain what the constant uncertainty over Medicare rates has meant to your practice and your patients.
"Tell the senator that we need a rational Medicare physician payment system that automatically keeps up with the cost of running a practice and is backed by a stable funding source."
Earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee approved a health system reform bill, but the work to bring about meaningful reform is far from over, TMA believes. Dr. Fleming wrote Senator Cornyn, a member of the committee, and urged him to continue working to find bipartisan solutions to the complex problems facing health care today.
"Texas is the uninsured capital of the United States, and we surely need some concrete action to right this dire situation," Dr. Fleming wrote. "But we've also had too much experience with the tactics of the private insurance company and our problem-plagued Medicaid system to know that coverage does not equal access. We need Congress to enact reforms that give physicians, hospitals, and providers incentives to provide quality care to all Texans."
Action, Oct. 16, 2009
Last Published: 10/16/2009
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