WEB
EXTRA!
Even though the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed bills this summer proposing various Medicare reforms, the conference committee negotiating differences in the bills may not reach a solution that will be approved by both chambers.
Because the legislation would affect the Medicare fee schedule, the Academy encourages members to e-mail their lawmakers and seek support for fair reimbursement as a way to protect patients' access to care (see end of story).
The legislation would initiate prescription drug coverage for seniors. Some observers suggest the tide is turning against the drug benefit, once thought to be too popular to oppose. Two dozen groups have called for defeat of the legislation likely to come from the conference committee, saying that the benefit will not be enough, especially with Medicare costs already rising rapidly.
On Sept. 16, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he was "becoming increasingly concerned" about whether negotiators working to reconcile the bills (H.R. 1 and S. 1) would be able to reach a compromise, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.
The AAFP supports adding a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program that is available for all seniors, though there are also reservations about the proposed bills, said AAFP President-elect Michael Fleming, M.D., of Shreveport, La.
"The idea of the legislation is extremely important. That Medicare patients should have coverage to be able to get the prescription drugs they need is absolutely vital," Fleming said. "That said, I don't think either the House or Senate bill meets all of our (AAFP) criteria. But in Washington, you get the best that you can. We are very anxious about what is going to come out of the conference committee."
Fleming said the Academy would study what the conference committee recommends. "We may decide that the conference bill is too flawed to be fixed and we are going to oppose it, or we may make a decision that it is OK but it would better if we added some things to it later that would help our patients more."
If the conference committee produces a watered-down bill that the House or Senate rejects, "everybody loses," warned Fleming. "From a political standpoint, I think both parties lose. And most important of all, our patients lose."
The House version of the legislation would prevent a 4.2 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement next year and instead ensure a 1.5 percent increase in 2004 and again in 2005. The two-year period would allow time for Congress to revamp the formula for reimbursement.
By mid-September, the conference committee had not resolved issues related to the Medicare fee schedule. The committee, however, did vote Sept. 9 to set up a temporary discount drug card program to fill the gap in health care coverage until Congress could come up with a more comprehensive plan.
The Academy asks you to e-mail your lawmakers -- via http://capitol.aafp.org -- about the legislation's possible impact on the Medicare fee schedule and therefore on seniors' ability to obtain health care. At the Web site, click on the Medicare item for physicians under "ACTION ALERT!"
To reach writer J. Michael Brodie, e-mail mbrodie@aafp.org.
FP Report is published by the
AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2003 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.