BY J.M. BRODIE
Sen. Grassley meets
with AAFP members, receives award (Online-only content)
About 50 AAFP leaders and members "hit the Hill" May 19 20 -- Capitol Hill. They made a case for changes related to medical liability insurance, patient safety, Medicare reimbursement, prescription drug benefits and funding for medical training. Daniel Onion, M.D., of Augusta, Maine, zeroed in on federal tort reform as a way to address the liability insurance crisis in many states.
"Family medicine and real docs are in trouble throughout the country, and anything we can do to try to fix little pieces of it until there's a bigger fix, we have to try," Onion told a legislative aide during AAFP's annual Spring Legislative Conference.
 Making a pitch for federal tort reform is Daniel Onion, M.D., second from right. He speaks with Nicole Moore, legislative correspondent for Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. Listening are Jeffrey Bachtel, M.D., on the left, and James King, M.D., on the right. |
 The Medicare Incentive Payment Program needs to be beefed up, Eddie Turner, above, explains to a legislative aide to Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. |
"In Ohio, we are a couple of years farther down the road of liability crisis than other states, but what we are facing is what other states are going to face if something doesn't change," said Jeffrey Bachtel, M.D., of Tallmadge, Ohio. In meetings with legislators and their aides, he described the situation in his state as severe.
"The rates are skyrocketing, and physicians are having to limit their practices, especially in the area of obstetrics. If we can get (liability reform) on the federal level, great. If it happens on the state level, that's fine, too," said Bachtel. "The point is that something has to happen."
Medicare issues
"We are concerned about the Medicare Incentive Payment Program," third-year medical student Eddie Turner of Memphis, Tenn., told a legislative aide. Turner laid out a list of Academy members' concerns, including the need to tackle MIPP's bureaucratic problems and beef up its incentives for providing rural care.
Medicare reimbursement resonated with the Hill visitors as an issue "important to practicing physicians, because a lot of them are closing their doors to Medicare patients," said Susan Rife, D.O., of Orland Park, Ill., during a meeting with a legislative aide to Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "It's a shame that the sickest and most vulnerable are not able to have access to care," said Rife.
The aide told the FPs that the senator agreed the fee structure needed work. "The formula is flawed," she said. "It's completely ridiculous that payments decrease as you go on through the years."
The aide said Frist and other senators would soon introduce a comprehensive Medicare bill, which they hoped Congress would pass by midsummer. "The number one thing about this bill is that it is going to give prescription drugs to seniors, and we are trying to see if we can get the physician fix in," said the aide, referring to correcting the formula for Medicare reimbursement. "I don't know if at the end of the day it will get in, but if it doesn't, it is going to be something that we may introduce afterwards as a separate bill."
 Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, tells AAFP members he is committed to eliminating geographic discrepancies between rural and nonrural physicians' Medicare payments. |
Coverage for all
The issue of health care coverage for all came up both during the visits to legislators' offices and when Del. Donna Christian-Christensen, M.D., D-Virgin Islands, gave a luncheon address to conference participants. As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus' Health Braintrust, she outlined health projects the caucus has championed.
"Our centerpiece is insuring the uninsured," said Christian-Christensen, a family physician and the first woman physician ever to serve in Congress. "We have to broaden the coalition to look at different approaches to come up with one that is doable."
Coming next: follow-up
Conference participants said they were generally pleased with their interactions on the Hill and felt they had gotten their messages across. "You can't tell the lawmakers too many times about what's going on with our practices back home," said James King, M.D., of Selmer, Tenn., chair of the AAFP Commission on Legislation and Governmental Affairs, following several Hill visits.
"I think it went really well," said Turner, who met with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., on the second day of his Hill visits and conferred with several legislative aides the first day. "They were receptive to the issues we were talking about. I think something will come of this. I am going to keep in contact and follow up on the issues."
To reach writer J.M. Brodie, e-mail mbrodie@aafp.org.
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