October 2006 | Vol. 24, No. 10

Status of DRA Delay Bills and SVU's Letter Writing Campaign to Congress

The Deficit Reduction Act (“DRA”), passed by Congress earlier this year, will impose drastic reductions in Medicare reimbursements for noninvasive vascular services. Scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2007, SVU has been working actively both on legislative and regulatory solutions to the DRA reductions, which could force some providers to stop providing ultrasound services. Many of our loyal members have asked how to get involved with these efforts, and the time has come for your help. “The Access to Medical Imaging Act” (“AMIA”) has been introduced both in the House (H.R. 5704) and Senate (S. 3795) and would delay implementation of this DRA cuts. The AMIA legislation is strongly supported by the Access to Medical Imaging Coalition (“AMIC”), of which SVU is an active participant. The AMIC represents more than 75,000 physicians, providers and patients, as well as medical imaging manufacturers. (See www.imagingaccess.org for more information on the Coalition.)

Status of H.R. 5704 and S. 3795 DRA Delay Bills in Congress

U.S. Representative Joe Pitts (R-PA) on June 28, 2006, introduced the Access to Medical Imaging Act (H.R. 5704) in the House of Representatives. The bill calls for a two-year “budget neutral” moratorium on the drastic DRA cuts in payments for Medicare medical imaging services. Additionally, the bill tasks the Government Accountability Office (GAO) with studying the impact of the DRA cuts on patient access and service issues, particularly relating to the availability and quality of imaging services in physician offices and freestanding vascular labs, with special attention to rural and medically underserved areas.

Currently there are 128 cosponsors of H.R. 5704. To find out if your Representative is a co-sponsor of the House Bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov website and enter the Bill number (H.R. 5704) in the box, click on Bill number, and then click on Search. When the House Bill comes up, click on Bill Summary & Status and then click on cosponsors to see the alphabetical list of the current House of Representative cosponsors.

A companion bill, the Access to Medical Imaging Act (S. 3795), was introduced in the Senate on August 3, 2006, by Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR). Currently there are 19 cosponsors of S. 3795. To find out if your Senator is a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov website and enter the Bill number (S. 3795) in the box, click on Bill number, and then click on Search. When the Senate Bill comes up, click on Bill Summary & Status and then click on cosponsors to see the alphabetical list of the current Senate cosponsors.

We need you to voice your support for these Bills! Please contact the Representative and both Senators from your state immediately, and urge them either to cosponsor H.R. 5704 (in the House) or S. 3795 (in the Senate) if they have not yet done so. Timing is critical. Members of Congress went into recess last week to campaign for the November 7 elections, but it is still vital that they understand the importance and urgency of this issue. Following the November elections, Congress is expected to reconvene for a “lame duck” session, during which the AMIA legislation may be considered.

On the SVU website home page you will find a link to the three sample letters—for a vascular technologist, a physician and a Medicare beneficiary (for offices or IDTF’s that want to seek their patient’s assistance)—from which you can base your own letter.

At the writing of this article, SVU’s letter writing campaign to Congress has generated almost 300 personal letters to Members of Congress in 19 states. That number is impressive, but many more letters are needed if we are to be successful in delaying implementation of these cuts on January 1, 2007. If you have not done so, please send a personal letter to your Members of Congress and encourage them to cosponsor HR 5704 (in the House of Representatives) or S. 3795 (in the Senate). If they have cosponsored one of the AMIA bills, please send them a note of thanks and emphasize the importance of Congress passing the AMIA legislation this year!

VERY IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT YOUR LETTERS!

1. It is CRITICAL that the letters have their own individual flavor (so they don't all look the same). Do not send the sample letter exactly as written, please write your personal letter so that it includes your personal thoughts on this issue and what it means for your vascular lab!
2. It is also very important to be thoughtful and respectful – angry letters don’t carry much weight and could actually hurt our efforts!
3. Hundreds of letters to the same office could actually be counterproductive so we will attempt to track these letters and will notify you through SVU Member Alerts when we reach a reasonable number to each Member of Congress. We would like a dozen or two good letters to each Member.
4. Fax is the preferable method to contact your respective Representatives and Senators. Their office fax number is available on their respective web pages. Go to www.house.gov and/or www.senate.gov and follow the link to your U.S. Representative’s or U.S. Senator’s specific web page. Or send an email to Steve Haracznak (steveh@svunet.org) if you need help in finding the DC office fax numbers for your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators.
5. Additionally, please notify the SVU national office via email at DRAletters@svunet.org to which Representative and Senator you have sent a letter. If possible, please email us a copy of any letters you have sent and whether those letters were mailed or faxed.

If Congress passes and the President signs the AMIA legislation, the DRA cuts would be delayed for two years. While subsequent legislation would be need to permanently eliminate the cuts, even the two-year delay provides time to further study the effects of these imaging cuts on America’s seniors. While SVU strongly supports the AMIA legislation, we are aware also of CMS’s ability to make regulatory adjustments, without congressional intervention, that would soften the blow to the medical imaging community and ensure continued patient access. SVU will continue to aggressively pursue both the legislative and regulatory advocacy efforts to ensure that our members have the resources they need to provide quality care to their patients

Thank you for your assistance and support of SVU.

Bill Schroedter
Chair, SVU Government Relations