Legislative Focus: H.R. 452 and H.R. 5

Legislative Focus: H.R. 452 and H.R. 5

Two critical national issues impacting physicians will be on the House or Senate floors in the next weeks in the form of H.R. 452 and H.R. 5. Below, we summarized them in a few points that you can email or discuss with your representative. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE OR YOUR SENATE REPRESENTATIVE! It is important that we continue to remain active and in touch with our representatives so they can be properly informed of the issues that affect us.

 H.R. 452 was introduced to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). Several grounds make this Board a danger for physicians:

  • IPAB puts important healthcare reimbursement and policy decisions in the hands of a board lacking accountability.
  • Operating under the guidelines of an already flawed formula (SGR), the IPAB’s supervision and lack of accountability will only put additional pressure on already stressed medical practices.
  • The rigid budget enforced by IPAB will most likely lead to erroneous projections which will trigger Congress to produce billions of dollars in offsets due to inaccurate calculations.

PLEASE URGE YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES TO VOTE “YES” AND REPEAL THIS AGENCY.

 

The approval of H.R. 5 will lead to reduction of the excessive burden the legal system places on health care by current medical liability costs. This bill passed the House vote this past week and was forwarded to the Senate. Here are the points you can touch upon in discussing your support for this bill:

  • This bill will provide the right balance of reform by promoting speedier resolutions to disputes.
  • Access to courts will be preserved, while limiting non-economic damages to a quarter million dollars – a win-win for both patients and physicians.
  • Protects effective state medical liability reform laws.

PLEASE URGE YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES TO VOTE “YES” AND PASS THIS BILL.

Further information on these bills can be found by accessing these links:

H.R. 452

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr452

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/2012-03-06-hr452-repeal-ipab.page

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/HR_452_.pdf 

H.R. 5

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr5

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr5rh/pdf/BILLS-112hr5rh.pdf

http://ama.capwiz.com/ama/issues/bills/?bill=39917506&cs_party=all&cs_status=all&cs_state=ALL