Senate passes opioid addiction treatment measure Last month, the U.S. Senate voted 94-1 to fund opioid education and prevention initiatives, improve treatment programs and expand the availability of the overdose prevention drug naloxone. The bill, known as the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA; S 524), would increase opioid abuse and prevention education efforts to the public, veterans, and incarcerated individuals; expand the availability of naloxone; identify and treat incarcerated individuals (as well as develop alternatives to incarceration); expand drug take-back efforts and disposal sites for unwanted medications; and create prescription opioid and heroin treatment intervention ... April 4, 2016 General Federal Legislation, Medical Solutions to Drug Abuse, Opioids, Drug Abuse 0 0 Comment Read More »
House passes bill to increase funding for medical research and speed FDA approvals Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly (344-77) to pass a bill known as the "21st Century Cures Act," which would boost federal funding for medical research and speed up Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for many new drugs and medical devices. The bill, HR 6, will give $8.75 billion to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research and another $550 million to the FDA over the next five years. A scaled-down bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate and there are hopes that it ... July 29, 2015 General Food and Drug Administration, Research and Experimental Medicine, Federal Legislation, Medical Devices, Public Health 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA supports bill to eliminate RAC incentives that cause punitive and burdensome auditing The California Medical Association (CMA) has announced its support of a bill introduced in Congress on May 22 that would reform the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) system. It is titled the Fair Medical Audits Act of 2015 and was introduced by North Carolina Congressman George Holding. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 established the Medicare RAC program to combat fraud and waste in the Medicare system. Initially launched in 2005 as a demonstration project in three states (California, Florida and New York), the Centers for ... June 2, 2015 Medicare Advocacy, Federal Legislation, Medicare, Recovery Audit Program 0 0 Comment Read More »
California Medical Association supports the Fair Medical Audits Act of 2015 The California Medical Association (CMA) issued a strong endorsement for the “Fair Medical Audits Act of 2015,” introduced today by U.S. Representative George Holding of North Carolina. The legislation addresses many concerns that physicians have with regard to the extraordinary lack of transparency and expensive, time-consuming and often unfair processes that plague the current Medicare audit program. Representative Holding declared it time to fix the broken audit program: “Put simply, patients achieve the best health outcomes when practicing physicians do just that – practice medicine. My bill will bring transparency ... May 26, 2015 Medicare Federal Legislation, Medicare, Recovery Audit Program, Advocacy, Audits 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA urges physicians to thank Congress for SGR vote Congress was able to put differences aside and overwhelmingly pass H.R. 2—historic bipartisan, bicameral Medicare reform legislation—once and for all! The California members of Congress who supported H.R. 2 deserve a hearty "thank you" for their bold action to repeal Medicare's broken sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula and ensure significant reforms are made to Medicare, shifting the focus to better care and better patient outcomes. H.R.2 also extends the expiring Children’s Health Insurance Program. For more details on the bill, click here for the California Medical Association’s (CMA) summary. Only two ... April 29, 2015 Medicare Advocacy, Medicare, SGR, Sustainable Growth Rate, Federal Legislation 0 0 Comment Read More »
Leadership Academy opening session to feature Congressional leaders describing how SGR reform finally passed For nearly two decades, physicians have had to work with the threat of massive cuts to Medicare hanging over their head from the sustainable growth rate (SGR). Somehow, during the most virulent Congressional partisanship in our history, a solution was reached and overwhelmingly passed both houses in April. The Western Health Care Leadership Academy is pleased to confirm that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy will be joining the Leadership Academy faculty, along with Charlotte Ivancic, Policy Advisor for the Office of Speaker John Boehner, and Wendell Primus, Senior Policy Advisory ... April 29, 2015 General Sustainable Growth Rate, Western Health Care Leadership Academy, Federal Legislation, SGR 0 0 Comment Read More »
How will SGR reform affect Medicare reimbursement? On April 14, Congress passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. The law eliminates the 21 percent physician fee cut that was scheduled to take effect on April 1 as part of the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will immediately begin work to implement the new provisions of the law. In preparation for the possibility that Congress might not act before the April 15 deadline, CMS had instituted a 10-business day processing hold for all impacted ... April 23, 2015 Medicare Legislative Advocacy, Medicare, SGR, Sustanable Growth Rate, Federal Legislation 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA applauds U.S. House of Representatives for passing monumental Medicare-CHIP reform in landslide vote, urges U.S. Senate to act swiftly Sacramento – Today, the California Medical Association (CMA) congratulates the U.S. House of Representatives for passing monumental Medicare reform and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) extension, and urgently asks their colleagues in the Senate to do the same before spring recess. The 392-37 vote clearly shows that now is the time to make Medicare reform a reality. The legislation, H.R. 2, known as the “The Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization Act,” will reform the broken Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) physician payment system and extend the expiring Children’s Health Insurance ... March 26, 2015 Medicare Federal Legislative Advocacy, Medicare, SGR, Sustainable Growth Rate, Federal Legislation 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA leaders converge on Capitol Hill to advocate for Medicare fix This week, 25 California Medical Association (CMA) physician leaders were in Washington, D.C., as part of the American Medical Association’s Legislative Week to urge Congress to enact the bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would repeal the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) and institute a new payment system. The group also asked Congress to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, formerly known as Healthy Families, which is set to expire September 2015. Medicare SGR Last year, both houses of Congress were very close to a permanent repeal of the badly broken SGR ... March 2, 2015 Medicare Federal Legislation, Medicare, SGR, Advocacy, Sustainable Growth Rate 0 0 Comment Read More »
Boxer and Pan introduce vaccination legislation plans in effort to raise immunization rates U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and California State Senator Richard Pan, M.D., toured an Emeryville Head Start program last week to illustrate the reasons they have introduced vaccination bills at the national and state levels. Senator Boxer introduced the Head Start on Vaccinations Act with Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto. That bill would protect children in Head Start programs from preventable diseases by requiring that all children in Head Start programs nationwide be fully vaccinated unless they have been exempted for medical reasons. Boxer chose the Emeryville Head Start program to ... February 26, 2015 General Immunization, Public Health, State Legislation, Vaccination, Federal Legislation 0 0 Comment Read More »
