To: AMEPA Members and Industry Guests

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED

Contact your SENATORS and REPRESENTATIVES and repectfully ask that they immediately request that Secretary Leavitt and the Administration implement an Emergency Delay of the Competitive Bidding Program of 15 Days to allow Congress to act.

We are asking for the same delay that the physicians received as described below.

Your legislators are most likely available Monday in their local, state offices. Check your legislators' websites at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov. Their fax numbers are available on their websites. Letters should be faxed this weekend and Monday morning.

Many Diabetic and Enteral Tube Feeding patients may have severe problems receiving their supplies if the program is implemented on July 1st. The doctors succeeded, we can too.

2 Days Left

- Members Only Teleconference: Monday, June 30, 2:00 PM ET
- NO DELAY for DME, but Doc Cut Halted 15 Days
- Texas Physicians react to Senator Cornyn's Vote
- Florida AMA reacts to Senator Martinez's Vote

Members Only Teleconference:

- Monday, June 30th at 2:00 PM ET

No matter what the legislative or legal outcome, AMEPA will be holding another Members Only Teleconference on Monday, June 30th at 2:00 P.M. ET.

Accredited Members and Associate/Sponsor Members will be emailed information about the call by Sunday and then again on Monday morning.

AMEPA Directors, Legal Advisors, Regulatory and Billing Advisors and other guests will discuss how business will operate starting July 1st.

NO DELAY for DME, but Doc Cut Halted 15 Days

Congressman Phil Gingrey, M.D. (R-GA) announced on his website that despite a concluding vote, the 10.6% doctors cut has been delayed for 15 days by Medicare . According to Representative Gingrey's website, he practiced medicine for 26 years before ascending from the Georgia State Senate into Congress in 2002. Ironically he does not Serve on a Health or Commerce Committee, but on the Armed Services Committee and the Science Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation. Perhaps with the help of Congressmen and Senators in the affected Round One MSAs and the leaders of the Stark-Camp campaign to delay the Competitive Bidding in Home Medical Equipment (DMEPOS), Medicare will enact a similar reprieve.

Special Thanks to AMEPA Members: Southern Diabetic Supply Company in Memphis, TN for forwarding this story.

Click for the Statement on Congressman Gingey's Website


Texas Physicians react to Senator Cornyn's Vote

TEXPAC WITHDRAWS ENDORSEMENT OF CORNYN
by Harvey Kronberg

Provided by the Quorum Report

June 27, 2008 3:51 PM

Physicians are angry with Cornyn and Hutchison for their votes last night against legislation forestalling cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates.
The political advocacy arm of the state's largest physician group rescinded its endorsement of Sen. John Cornyn today in the aftermath of his vote last night against legislation that would have stopped a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for physicians.

The move is damaging for Cornyn, who is up for re-election this November against Democrat Rick Noriega and shows the importance of the reimbursement rate issue for the Texas Medical Association. The vote last night was a move to close debate on the legislation, known as cloture. It
fell a single vote short of the 60 necessary for passage. Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison both voted no on the motion to force action on the legislation.
"Texas physicians are deeply offended that Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison last night chose to protect insurance companies' profits instead of protecting our patients' health," said TMA President Josie R. Williams in a statement made earlier today.

"Either Senator Hutchison or Senator Cornyn could have made the difference. Instead they chose to play partisan politics with our patients' health and voted to defend unnecessary overpayments to certain Medicare Advantage health plans."

Cornyn has been publicly critical of the rate cuts in the past and would have stopped the payment cut under legislation that he introduced on the issue this year. In a statement released today, Cornyn said that Democrats could have passed an extension to push back implementation of the rate cuts and allow for further negotiation on a compromise bill. Instead, they chose to score political points by allowing the deadline to expire.

"The Democrats knew these cuts could have been prevented through an extension or a bipartisan bill. Yet they insisted on a partisan proposal by Sen. (Max) Baucus that would produce a certain veto and indefinite delay as the process started over," Cornyn said.

"There is no good reason for Medicare beneficiaries and their physicians to endure this uncertainty, hardship and inconvenience. But that is apparently what the majority party wanted, for their own political ambitions."

A story in the national political newspaper Politico reported that Senate Republicans were under pressure from the White House to vote no on the Medicare bill because it contained provisions to take funding away from privatized Medicare health plans, known as Medicare Advantage. In the end, only nine Republicans crossed over and voted with the Democrats on the parliamentary procedure, Politico reported.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain did not vote on the measure while presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama voted yes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed his vote to no so that he can bring the legislation back for consideration after the Fourth of July recess. According to Politico, Reid promised to force another vote on the bill. In the meantime, Cornyn said he was supporting efforts by the White House to prevent the rate cuts through the administrative rules process. He also urged a complete overhaul in the way physicians are paid under the current reimbursement system, which Cornyn described as "broken."

Tuesday is the deadline for the rate cuts to go into effect, although developments this afternoon suggest that the cuts could be temporarily delayed or compensated for in order to give lawmakers a window of opportunity to craft a compromise. In a statement released this afternoon, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said his agency "will take all steps available to the Department under the law to minimize the impact on providers and beneficiaries."

QR has learned that among those steps, HHS would hold Medicare claims for 10 days. If a compromise is reached during that time, HHS would then be able to re-process those claims so that providers would not feel any effects from the stalemate, according to Leavitt. The Bush Administration has tried to cut payment rates for years now as part of attempts to reform the physician reimbursement system for the federal entitlement program for elderly
Americans.

Congress has denied those cuts, although Capitol newspaper The Hill reported that on two occasions lawmakers weren't able to act before the deadline for the cuts to begin. In each instance, Congress made the rate restoration retroactive. The proposed rate cuts are extremely unpopular among physicians. The TMA said today that a survey among its members found that 58 percent of Texas physicians would limit the number of new Medicare patients if the rate cuts take effect.

(c) Copyright June 27, 2008 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved

AMA reacts to Senator Martinez's Vote

AMA OUTRAGED AT SENATORS WHO PUT HEALTH INSURERS BEFORE MEDICARE PATIENTS

Statement attributable to: Nancy H. Nielsen, M.D.
President, American Medical Association

"The physicians of America are outraged that a group of Republican senators followed the direction of the Bush Administration and voted to protect health insurance companies at the expense of America's seniors, disabled and military families. U.S. Senator Mel Martinez voted AGAINST the bill, 202 224-3041 or 305 444-8332; U.S. Senator Bill Nelson voted FOR the bill, 202 224-5274 or 305 536-5999.

"These senators leave for their 4th of July picnics knowing that the most vulnerable Americans are at risk because of the Senate's inability to act to stop drastic payment cuts for health care services that are needed by our Medicare and TRICARE patients.

"The House voted to preserve access to care for Medicare patients in a bipartisan landslide vote to pass H.R. 6331 by an overwhelming margin of 355 to 59. The House made seniors, the disabled and military families a top priority. The AMA appreciates the courage of the 59 Senators, including nine Republicans, who voted to put patients ahead of partisan politics and vote for H.R. 6331.

"Today, thanks to some senators, we stand at the brink of a Medicare meltdown. On July 1 - just four days from now - the government will slash Medicare physician payments by 10.6 percent, forcing many physicians to make the difficult choice to limit the number of Medicare patients in their practices.

"The Senate must return from their recess and make seniors' health care their top priority. For doctors, this is not a partisan issue - it's a patient access issue."