PAC Insider - August 2014

Thank you for your last contribution of $75 to ACP Services PAC. As a PAC member, we want to send you short periodic updates on the PAC's most recent activities. We have two key policy objectives remaining for 2014, let alone the longer term objectives that will carry us into 2015. Despite an increasingly challenging political environment, we are continuing to increase the strength of ACP Services PAC thanks to support from members like you.

Policy Goals for Remainder of 2014

With the help of PAC members, we continue to work to advance legislation in two key areas: extending Medicaid pay parity and repealing Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate formula (SGR). Thanks to your contribution, we can continue our messaging on these important topics at local fund raising events while members of Congress are home for the congressional recess.

  • Medicaid Pay Parity - Medicaid's Primary Care Pay Parity program provides that Medicaid payments for designated visits and immunizations provided by Internists and other primary care specialties, and by Internal Medicine and pediatric sub-specialists, be 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. 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.
  • 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.

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ACP Services PAC Supports Important Legislators

Several PAC members are attending local fund raising events in August for key members of Congress to continue our messaging.

  • Mark Richman, MD, FACP, and Raminder Gill, MD, FACP, for Rep. Ami Bera, MD, FACP (D-7th CA).
  • Robert Jackson, MD, FACP, for Rep. Gene Green (D-29th TX). Rep. Green serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health.
  • Mark Mayer, MD, FACP, for Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-9th OH), member of the House Appropriations Committee.
  • John Maese, MD, MACP, for Rep. Tom Reed (R-23rd NY), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
  • Daniel Kimball, MD, MACP, for Rep. Joe Pitts (R-16th PA). Rep. Pitts chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health.

Distinguished Service Award Presented to Dr. Charles Cutler

During Leadership Day this past May, the ACP Services PAC Distinguished Service Award was presented to Charles Cutler, MD, MACP, of Pennsylvania. Dr. Cutler has been a dedicated PAC member since 2006, and regularly attends local fund raising events to speak to PAC-supported candidates about ACP Services's policies and what the candidates can do in Congress to further support Internal Medicine. Dr. Cutler gives, considerably to the PAC- and he gets. He has asked many colleagues to join the PAC and inevitably we do. We, his friends and his colleagues, always seem to say, "Yes." I think we're just happy to do what Chuck asks.

ACP Services PAC - www.acpservices.org/pac

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