NATIONAL ADVOCACY CONFERENCE
U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth and GLMS President
Bruce Scott, MD, met in the congressman’s
office on Capitol Hill to discuss issues of
important to physicians and patients.
Three GLMS representatives recently attended the annual National
Advocacy Conference, hosted by the American Medical Association,
at the Grand Hyatt in Washington D.C.
The conference featured multiple speakers and informative discussions about the direction of health care in America. It also gave
physicians and health care representatives the chance to sit down
with members of Congress to discuss important issues facing the
medical community including the repeal of the Sustainable Growth
Rate (SGR), the controversial Medicare physician payment formula.
Congress has until April 1, 2015, to choose whether the SGR legislation is repealed or patched temporarily.
Outside the U.S. State Capitol currently under renovation for cracks
and deficiencies in the dome.
GLMS President Bruce Scott, MD, GLMS Executive Director Lelan
Woodmansee, CAE, and GLMS Assoc. Exec. Director Bert Guinn,
MBA, CAE, were in attendance and had the opportunity to meet
with Senator Rand Paul, Representative John Yarmuth and Senator Mitch McConnell’s Chief of Staff to discuss the repeal of SGR.
The GLMS group also lobbied for several other issues affecting Kentucky physicians including Medicare independent payment advisory
boards, medical liability, the Sunshine Act’s website stability issues
and ICD-10 concerns among others.
“Lelan, Bert and I were able to meet with all three offices that represent Louisville on a national level,” said Dr. Scott. “We discussed
at length the many challenges physicians face in an environment
of increasing regulation and declining reimbursement. I made it
clear that most physicians consider ICD-10, meaningful use, quality
measures and the other changes coming from Washington as administrative hassles that are diminishing, not improving, the quality
of care because all of these take us away from caring for patients.”
U.S. Senator Rand Paul listens to Dr. Scott’s
plea for reduction of ever-increasing physician regulatory borders.
Dr. Scott also said that while all three legislative offices supported a
permanent fix for the sustainable growth rate, the fiscal reality dictated there may likely be another temporary patch. Dr. Scott pointed
out to each office that the SGR patches have now cost more than the
permanent fix would have cost and reaffirmed the stress Kentucky
physicians’ face due to the yearly uncertainty of the legislation.
For more information about the AMA, visit www.ama-assn.org.
Updated information about the state of SGR Legislation will be
featured in our April 2015 edition of the GLMS News.
GLMS NEWS MARCH 2015
President Bruce Scott, MD,
inside the U.S. Capitol.
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