FP Report -- September 1998 Raise your voice
You can help ensure passage of FP-friendly spending bills
In the next couple of weeks, the House of Representatives and the Senate Appropriations Committee will vote on appropriations bills that could impact family practice. The Academy is working to ensure the impact is positive, and you can help by contacting your legislators.
The House Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education adopted its version of the appropriations bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on July 14. The bill -- H.R. 4274 -- will head to the full House of Representatives this month.
Because the House bill has already been revised, or "marked up," the Academy has shifted its focus to the Senate. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies was scheduled to mark up its version of the FY 1999 spending bill and send it to the Senate Appropriations Committee for mark-up early this month.
The Clinton administration has recommended physician user fees for enrolling in Medicare, submitting non-electronic claims and submitting duplicate or unprocessable claims. The House bill didn't include provisions requiring the fees, but it was unclear at press time whether the Senate bill will call for user fees. The Academy opposes such fees, which would seriously affect family physicians, many of whom do not have computerized practices.
The Academy also is advocating $51.1 million in funding for family medicine training programs through Title VII of the Public Health Service Act, as well as $171 million for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
As a constituent, you can still influence your U.S. senators to consider these concerns.
The AAFP encourages you to raise the issues in a letter to your senators, particularly if he or she sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
For a list of committee members and a sample letter for you to personalize, sign and fax, call the Academy's document-on-demand system, AAFP Express, at (800) AAFP EXP [223-7397].
Supply your member ID number and follow the prompts, and the documents will be sent almost immediately to your fax machine for free.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1998 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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