Thank you for your latest contribution of $75 in 2014. Election Day is less than five weeks away! ACP Services PAC is short of its fundraising goal and needs your continued support. If you are able to make an additional contribution this year, please do so by clicking here. Don’t forget our two key policy objectives remaining for 2014: Medicaid's Primary Care Pay Parity program for two more years and repealing and reforming Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate formula (SGR). Even though Congress is now in recess, we are able to make our voices heard by sending PAC members to local fundraising events, thanks to your contribution.
PAC Steps-up Campaign Events as Election Day Nears
As Election Day approaches, more and more PAC members are attending local fundraising events for key members of Congress where they have the opportunity to discuss and advocate for ACP Services’s policy objectives for the remainder of 2014. Every chance to highlight issues important to internal medicine is critical.
- Omar T. Atiq, MD, FACP, hosted an event for Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR), a member of the Appropriations Committee's, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittee
- Emmett J. Doerr, Jr., MD, FACP, hosted an event for Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), a member of the Finance Committee and Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee
- Susan Hingle, MD, FACP, met with Rep. Aaron Schock (R-18th IL), a member of the House Ways & Means Committee
- Roger S. Khetan, MD, FACP, met with Rep Lloyd Doggett (D-35th TX), a member of the House Ways & Means Committee
- Lynn Cleary, MD, FACP, met with Rep. Dan Maffei (D-24th NY), a House member actively working to repeal and reform the SGR
- Ralph E. Koldinger, MD, met with Rep. Ami Bera, MD, FACP (D-7th CA)
- Joan P. Zinkawich, MD, FACP, met with for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a member of the Appropriations Committee's, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittee
- Mark Liebow, MD, MPH, FACP, met with Rep. Tim Walz (D-1st MN), a member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee
- Robert J. Gluckman, MD, FACP, met with Kurt Schrader (D-5th OR), a member of the Small Business Committee and Budget Committee
- George Meyer, MD, FACP, met with Rep. Jackie Speier (D-14th CA)
Policy Goals for Remainder of 2014
With the help of PAC members, we continue to work to advance our legislative priorities during campaign events. Our remaining legislative goals are to extend Medicaid pay parity and repeal Medicare’s SGR. Given that Congress is now in recess until after the election, it is imperative that we urge lawmakers to bring up any outstanding legislation when they return in a "lame duck" session.
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Medicaid Pay Parity - Medicaid's Primary Care Pay Parity program provides Medicaid payments for designated visits and immunizations provided by Internists and other primary care specialtists, and by Internal Medicine and pediatric subspecialists, at no less than the Medicare rates. This two-year program expires Dec. 31, 2014. It applies to physicians in all states, regardless of whether the state has expanded Medicaid eligibility or not.
ACP Services was instrumental in getting legislation introduced in the Senate to continue the program for two more years (Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act, S. 2694). ACP Advocates from the Advocates for Internal Medicine Network (AIMn) were urged to ask their senators to cosponsor this important bill. Thanks to our Advocates, nine senators are now cosponsors. We have many more to go. If you are an Advocate for Internal Medicine and haven't yet asked your senators to cosponsor S. 2694, or if you aren't enrolled in AIMn but would like to be, you can take action here.
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SGR – Earlier this year, Congress enacted its 17th SGR patch, delaying at least a 24 percent Medicare payment cut, to March 31, 2015. Congress, however, already has comprehensive legislation (H.R. 4015/S. 2000) that has the unprecedented support of over 600 physician organizations, including ACP, and the Democrats and Republicans on the three committees with jurisdiction over Medicare issues. Enactment of permanent SGR repeal and reform this year, before the current Congress ends, is imperative and achievable, with your help.