Legislative
Updates
US Tort Liability Index
NYS
Senate Passes Legislation To Reduce Liability Costs
Borne By Physicians
Bya
vote of 35-26, the NYS Senate passed legislation
(S.7038, Flanagan) yesterday which would reduce the
trigger point for physician eligibility for the Excess
coverage from $1.3M/$3.9M to $1M/$3M. If enacted, this
measure would result in an immediate 6% reduction in
physician medical liability premiums. The State would
remain responsible for underwriting the cost of the
Excess program.
2008
AMA Medicare Physician Payment Action Kit
Bronx
Population Study
Congress Stops 10% Medicare Cut and OKs 0.5% Increase for Just Six Months
The House and Senate have passed legislation that would prevent for six months (until July 1, 2008) the impending 10% physician cut in Medicare reimbursement. Instead, physicians would receive a 0.5% increase for the six months. The President is expected to sign the bill. The bill also includes a six-month extension of other important Medicare reimbursement programs for physicians. These include the 5% bonus provision for physicians practicing in shortage areas, and the minimum GPCI "floor" provision
that, if allowed to sunset, would have caused reductions in reimbursement for physicians from Albany north to the Canadian border and west to Buffalo. In addition, the legislation authorizes and additional 1.5% bonus for quality reporting through the end of 2008. The bill also extends until March 31, 2009 funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) for states to maintain their current enrollment.
Clearly, this action is preferable to having the cut go into effect, and MSSNY thanks the New York Congressional delegation for its efforts in helping to at least temporarily stave off this cut. However, several questions remain. The major reason that the cut was only averted for six months was the intense disagreement between the White House and the Congress over the manner by which funds would be appropriated to prevent these Medicare cuts. More specifically, a dispute regarding how much funding
could be taken from the overpayments currently made to Medicare managed care plans. Will Congress and the President be able to agree on another funding source before next July 1? Will the 10% cut grow even deeper if Congress does not act before next July 1? Will physicians have the opportunity to change their Medicare participation status if Congress does not act before next July 1? Stay tuned for further details.
In any event, MSSNY will continue to fiercely advocate to the New York State Legislature and to our Congressional delegation to prevent the potential "doomsday" in New York health care that will occur next July 1 if Congress does not act to prevent further Medicare cuts and/or the New York State Legislature does not act to prevent the crushing surcharges and medical liability insurance rate increases Superintendent Dinallo has indicated are necessary if liability reform is not enacted.
As the Legislature winds
down to its final six weeks, MSSNY continues to advocate
for legislation that would enact a number of key reforms
to assist physicians in their dealings with health plans.
These bills among others include:
MSSNY has had several
discussions with representatives in the hospital
community regarding how the two associations can work
together to achieve legislation that would reform the
inappropriate claims adjudication tactics by health
plans. Moreover, the Westchester County Medical Society
is to be commended for its work with the Westchester
County Association, a business group, to facilitate WCA’s
advocacy for reform of various health insurer practices.
However, as the
Legislative Session begins to wind down, it is essential
for state legislators to hear directly from the physician
community regarding the need for additional managed care
reform. They need to hear from physicians that last year’s
key reform legislation was a good first step, but much
more needs to be done.
In this regard, we ask
that you do the following:
- MSSNY has put up letters
on its grassroots website that physicians can send on
each of the above issues. They can be found at http://capwiz.com/mssny/state/main/?state=NY.
Attached is a copy of the letters as well as MSSNY’s
memorandum in support of these proposals. We urge you
to urge all of your physicians to send these letters
to their legislators.
- Urge physicians to ask
all of their colleagues to do the same.
- Arrange a meeting with
your local Senator with your physician leaders to
educate them on the need for meaningful reform of
health insurer practices, including the legislation
listed above.
Finally, we would urge
that, as you meet with your local Senator, that you also
take a few minutes to urge them to oppose any measure
that would expand liability against physicians, including
legislation to eliminate the current statutory limits on
attorney contingency fees in medical liability actions
(S.790, DeFrancisco), expanding the types of damages
awardable in wrongful death actions (S.1266, DeFrancisco/A.6420,
Weinstein), and legislation that would vitiate the
statute of limitations for medical liability actions
(A.6416, Weinstein and S.4989, DeFrancisco). As noted in
last week’s e-news, MSSNY has been advised that the
Trial Lawyers are making an all out push to enact one or
more measures into law that would expand liability.
