LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY
IMS JOB BANK Congressman Bruce Braley visits IMS
October 26, 2009
On Monday, October 26, 2009, Congressman Bruce Braley visited the Iowa Medical Society offices to discuss health care reform in Congress. Because of his key role on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and his influence with House Democratic leaders, he has secured a guarantee for legislative language on Medicare equity in the final House health care reform bill. Congressman Braley met with IMS President Michael Kitchell and other physician leaders to outline the agreement which has been finalized to include provisions to:
- address geographic disparity in Medicare reimbursement rates; and
- move Medicare towards a system that rewards efficient, high quality patient outcomes.
This is a major breakthrough for Iowa patients and providers. View the detailed summary of the agreement (PDF 36KB). This agreement reflects Congressman Braley's consistent work on Medicare equity since his election to the United States House of Representatives in 2006.
The House language also complements the work of Senator Grassley and that of the Senate. The Senate Finance bill would reduce Medicare's geographic adjustments by one fourth in January 2010 and then by one half in 2011. During the next two years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would be required to analyze and ensure that any geographic adjustments are accurate, or the 2011 changes would continue.
The impact of this provision would be to bring a 1.5 to 2% increase in 2010 and 3 to 4% increase in 2011 in Medicare fees to Iowa physicians. Early estimates calculate this would amount to over $10 million in 2010 and over $21 million in 2011 in additional Part B payments in Iowa. The Senate bill also includes provisions to reward efficient, high quality patient outcomes as advocated by IMS for a delivery system and payment reform that would give more incentives to pay for value (quality/cost). No state has a higher combination of high quality and cost-effective care than Iowa.
Representative Braley supports the efforts by Senator Grassley and Senator Harkin to move this issue forward in the Senate's health care reform bill and as the final bill is negotiated in conference committee between the House and Senate.
Click here to read the story filed by Kay Henderson of Radio Iowa.
Related Stories:
Health Reform Update - September 30, 2009
IMS Health Reform Update - September 17, 2009