FP Report -- March 1999
FY 2000 federal budget
Good news, bad news
The Academy alternately applauded and panned parts of the Clinton administration's fiscal year 2000 budget proposals last month.
Each year, the funding blueprint lays the groundwork for Congress' annual budget process, crucial to health care.
The upside. The Academy commended the administration for its proposal to escalate funding for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. The administration called for a 21 percent increase for AHCPR, from $171 million this year to $206 million in FY 2000.
"The Academy appreciates the administration directive that the budget will help 'to translate the findings of completed research into everyday medical practice,'" said the AAFP in its Feb. 10 news release.
The downside. In what the Academy called a "disappointing setback," the budget recommends zero funding for the Title VII cluster that includes family medicine training.
"In many areas of the country, there is a significant shortage of family physicians and other primary care physicians," said the AAFP release. "The nation's rural areas and inner cities are hardest hit. Cutting the funding for training is counterproductive."
(Note: Congress in the past has thwarted administration efforts to slash Title VII funds.)
The budget also calls for Medicare providers, including physicians, to be assessed $194.5 million in user fees to help cover the program's operating costs. User fees could include $1 for each paper claim (instead of electronic claim) filed for Medicare reimbursement.
The user fees "would impose additional burdens on practicing family physicians who are already struggling to comply with oppressive amounts of Medicare paperwork and regulation," said the Academy.
The Web site. AAFP's summary of the administration's health-related budget proposals can be accessed at http://www.aafp.org/x2401.xml on the AAFP Web site.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1999 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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