What are your character's main goals for the Senate Health Care Hearings? What do you want to accomplish?
The Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2010
and
The Medicare Beneficiary Freedom To Contract Act of 2010
to be approved by the Senate Finance Committee.
How do you plan to accomplish it?
By working with Senators from both sides of the aisle in order to get these bills voted on and discussed by Senators.
Who are you working with to get this done?
Senator John Cornyn, (R) Texas
Senator John Kerry, (D) Massachusetts
Go Deeper
The American Medical Association's Top Issues for the Senate Finance Committee Hearing:
On November 5, 2009, the AMA formally announced its support for H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act and H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009. The AMA announced its support for H.R. 3962 and H.R. 3961 to convey existing AMA policy perspectives on legislation scheduled for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives as early as Nov. 7. Together, these bills address many?but not all?of the AMA's seven essential elements for health system reform:
Expanding coverage. The AMA is committed to enacting legislation to provide health coverage for all Americans. Under H.R. 3962, the percentage of legal, non-elderly residents with insurance coverage will rise to 96 percent.
Insurance market reforms. The AMA supports insurance market reforms that expand choice of affordable coverage and eliminate denials for pre-existing conditions. H.R. 3962 eliminates pre-existing condition exclusions and lifetime limits on total spending; prohibits the ability of premiums from being increased to reflect differences in enrollee health and narrows age rating practices; and creates new health insurance exchanges to provide self-insured individuals and small business employees with a choice of more affordable insurance options.
Patient-physician decision making. Preserving the power of patients and their physicians to make health care decisions?rather than insurance companies or government officials?is of paramount importance to all physicians and to the AMA. While H.R. 3962 includes a number of new government oversight bodies, the AMA has not identified any new authority that would overpower the relationship between patients and their physicians. Furthermore, expanded coverage and choice should help empower patient and physician decision making.
Investments in quality, prevention and wellness. Creating incentives and investments within health system reform in quality improvement, prevention and wellness is important to the AMA. H.R. 3962 includes numerous provisions to provide for additional resources for quality initiatives, preventive services and wellness programs. Importantly, quality improvement programs are based on positive incentives, rather than serving as a mechanism for imposing financial penalties on physicians.
Repealing the Medicare SGR. Repeal of the fatally-flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) this year is critical to preserving access to health care for millions of seniors, disabled Americans, and millions of future beneficiaries, and remains a fundamental goal of the AMA. H.R. 3961, a separate bill, repeals the SGR and eliminates the accumulated budgetary debt it has produced, replacing it with a new physician payment formula. The House leadership has expressed confidence that H.R. 3961 will be passed because it is tied to a statutory pay-as-you-go requirement that the House approved earlier this year. The House intends to vote on H.R. 3961 soon after action on H.R. 3962.
Medical liability reform. The AMA is committed to continuing to advocate for the passage of meaningful medical liability reforms to reduce the cost of defensive medicine. Comprehensive reforms such as those enacted in California and Texas have lowered liability costs and improved access to care. Passage of these proven reforms at the federal level has proven elusive regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats are in the majority. H.R. 3962 authorizes incentive payments to states that adopt alternative certificate of merit and/or early offer liability reforms. Testing alternative reforms hold promise for gaining additional insight on new ways to reduce the cost of defensive medicine and abusive litigation practices.
Reduce administrative burdens. Streamlining and standardizing insurance claims processing requirements to eliminate unnecessary costs and administrative burdens will produce significant benefits for physician practices. H.R. 3962 incorporates several of the AMA's recommendations to streamline claims processing, improve physicians' revenue cycle and lower overhead costs.
Of course, H.R. 3962 is an enormous bill with broad scope and we recognize that more improvements are needed before a final bill emerges from a joint House-Senate conference committee. Patient choice should be strengthened by allowing more low-income individuals to purchase coverage through health insurance exchanges, and individually owned policies, such as health savings accounts, must be preserved. The public option defined in H.R. 3962 is voluntary for physicians and with negotiated rates. That said, we continue to believe that creating a public plan is not the best way to promote competition and we urge consideration of other alternatives to promote competition and more affordable health insurance options. Further, if a public option is created, it should provide patients with some reimbursement for services provided by an "out-of-network physician".
Together, H.R. 3962 and H.R. 3961 offer a path toward reform that, on balance, the AMA leadership has concluded is consistent with our principles of pluralism, freedom of choice, freedom of physician practice, and universal access. Passage of these bills represents a critical step toward the next stage of the legislative process that will enable further refinement of policies and lays a solid foundation for achieving our goal of high-quality, affordable coverage for all Americans.
In expressing support for H.R. 3962, AMA leadership articulated existing policy adopted by the AMA House of Delegates that is comprised of representatives of more than 106 national medical specialty societies, 50 state medical societies, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and representatives from the military and public health services.
As the legislative process moves forward, the AMA will continue to work with the House, the Senate and the Obama Administration to improve and strengthen the final package that is signed into law.
Stay engaged in the discussion on health system reform. To learn how you can get the facts and get involved, visit the AMA health system reform Web site at www.hsreform.org. Or contact our senior representative Noah Schlottman at nschlottman@hightechhigh.org if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the AMA.
