AOPA Action Alert--Oppose 10-Year Freeze on O&P Medicare Payments

AOPA Action Alert--Oppose 10-Year Freeze on O&P Medicare Payments

AOPA

5/19/2003

ACTION ALERT

Please Contact Your Lawmakers to
Oppose a 10-Year Freeze in O&P Medicare Payments

The Senate-passed version of the Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act
includes a provision that would freeze Medicare O&P payments for the
next 10 years - meaning a zero payment update for 10 years. The O&P
payment freeze was included in this legislation in order to create
additional funds for increased payments to rural health care providers
(not O&P practitioners).

AOPA is making every effort to eliminate this provision from the final
legislation but we need your help to achieve this outcome.

Background

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed very
different versions of the Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act--the
Senate version includes a 10-year O&P payment freeze, the House version
does not.

Differences in these two bills now must be resolved by a conference
committee, which is made up of senior lawmakers from both the House and
Senate. Once the differences in the two versions are resolved, the
legislation will be sent back to the House and Senate for a final vote.
If the legislation is approved by each chamber, it will be sent to the
President to be signed into law.

Because the Medicare O&P payment freeze will now be debated by this
conference committee, we have no time to spare and must let our
lawmakers know that this provision will be devastating to the O&P field
and the patients we treat. AOPA anticipates that Congress will finalize
this package very quickly and that the final bill will be signed into
law by the President. Therefore, we ask you to promptly contact your
lawmakers and oppose this provision.

REQUIRED ACTION:

Please contact your Representative and Senators immediately by phone,
fax or e-mail and urge them to eliminate the ten-year O&P payment freeze
from the final Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act. Let your
lawmakers know that such drastic action would be devastating to the O&P
profession and the Medicare recipients who need orthotic and prosthetic
services.

You can get contact information for your lawmakers by going to:

<URL Redacted>

Type in your zip code under Elected Officials and click on the picture
of the lawmaker to get their fax number in Washington, D.C.

A sample letter you may wish to use follows:

__________________________

Sample Letter to Lawmakers

The Honorable <First Name> <Last Name>
United States Congress
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr./Ms. <Last Name>:

I would like to voice my strong opposition to a provision included in
the Senate-passed Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (H.R. 2)
that would freeze Medicare reimbursement payments for orthotic and
prosthetic (O&P) services for ten years (Section 544(b) of Senate
Amendment no. 594). This provision will have severe unintended
consequences not only for beneficiaries in need of orthotic and
prosthetic services but also for the health care practitioners who
provide these necessary services to Medicare beneficiaries. I,
therefore, strongly urge you to eliminate this provision from the final
legislative package.

While the intent of H.R. 2 is to encourage job creation, there is no
question that this provision will lead to job loss-a direct
contradiction of the intent of this legislation. Since 1989, Medicare
orthotic and prosthetic payments have increased only 24 percent while
the consumer price index (CPI) has increased 45 percent. This disparity
has placed tremendous financial distress on O&P facilities during a
period when material and input costs have been increasing at a rate of
more than 4 to 5 percent. If a 10-year freeze is implemented, orthotic
and prosthetic provider payments will have increased only 24 percent
during the period of 1989-2013, while the CPI will increase by nearly 90
percent over the same period. Therefore, eliminating Medicare O&P
updates for the next ten years is certain to force many O&P facilities,
most of which are small businesses, to cut more jobs or even force some
into bankruptcy.

Also certain to experience increased hardships are the Medicare
beneficiaries who require orthotic and prosthetic services. If this
provision is enacted, access to vital and necessary orthotic and
prosthetic care will surely suffer and the quality of care will decline
as practitioners are forced to substitute lower quality materials in
order to make ends meet.

Finally, a payment freeze of this magnitude is simply unprecedented. No
analysis has shown that Medicare pays too much for orthotic and
prosthetic services. Moreover, there have been no formal deliberations
either by Congress or its advisory bodies indicating that a payment
freeze is warranted. In fact, the evidence shows that Medicare payments
for orthotic and prosthetic services should be increased above the
annual CPI update mandated by law since Medicare orthotic and prosthetic
payments have lagged the CPI by such a substantial margin.

Because of these reasons, I strongly urge you to seek the removal of
this onerous provision that would freeze Medicare payments for orthotic
and prosthetic services until 2013-one that is certain to lead to the
reduction of jobs and lower quality of services for Medicare
beneficiaries.

I appreciate your consideration of my request on this critical piece of
legislation. Please do not hesitate to contact me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX if
you have any questions.

Sincerely,