Take part in "Budget Week!" With recommendations on how to further reduce the federal deficit due to the budget "Super Committee" on Oct. 14, your ACC is asking the entire cardiovascular community to act this week. The goals:
- Permanently repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula as part of any deficit reduction plan
- Include medical liability reforms in any deficit reduction plan
- Protect medical imaging from any further cuts
Super committee members need to hear from their colleagues in the House and Senate. Even if your member is not on the Super Committee, please reach out to your elected officials on these three priority issues. Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be put through to your Representative or Senator's office. Once connected, ask to speak to the health legislative assistant. (If you attended the Legislative Conference in September, don't forget to mention your meeting!)
For House members only: When calling your representative, please be sure to ask him/her to sign on to the SGR repeal letter led by Rep. Allyson Schwartz as part of your SGR request. If you would like to send your Representative a letter, click here.
Need more? The following talking points are designed to help you answer any questions you might get from your members of Congress and/or their staff.
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SGR: Given time constraints and the diminishing pool of spending offsets, the Super Committee is the only viable vehicle for addressing the SGR this year. Every year that Congress postpones fixing the SGR, the cost grows. In 2005 the costs to repeal the SGR would have been roughly $50 billion. The American Medical Association (AMA) estimates that by 2016 the cost of permanent repeal would be $600 billion.
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Medical Liability Reform: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that medical liability reform would result in cost savings to the federal budget of more than $50 billion over the next 10 years. The ACC supports a system that increases patient safety and ensures that injured patients are compensated quickly and fairly; improves provider-patient communications, and ensures affordable and accessible medical liability insurance; and ensures that federal reform efforts do not impact reforms already enacted and working at the state level.
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Imaging: Medical imaging has been the focus of numerous drastic cuts over the past five years and continues to remain a target by Congress and regulators for potential payment reductions. Additional payment cuts and restrictions on imaging services cannot be absorbed by physician practices without impacting quality and access to high quality care.
- Physician Impact on Jobs: An economic impact study conducted by the Lewin Group on behalf of the AMA in February 2011 shows that physicians have a significant impact on their local economies. Across the U.S., each office-based physician supports 6.2 jobs, which translates into an average of 46,400 jobs in each state, or a total of four million jobs nationwide.
For more on your ACC's activities around the budget, go to CardioSource.org/Budget.
Questions/Comments contact
advocate@acc.org
.