November 2006 | Vol. 24, No. 11

Status of SVU’s Member Letter Writing Campaign to Congress on the Access to Medical Imaging Act legislation

The Deficit Reduction Act (“DRA”) of 2005 passed by Congress will impose drastic reductions in Medicare reimbursements for noninvasive vascular services. SVU has been working actively both on legislative and regulatory solutions to the DRA reductions, which are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2007, and 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 we need your help now. “The Access to Medical Imaging Act” (“AMIA”) has been introduced both in the House (H.R. 5704) and Senate (S. 3795). 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.)

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.

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

The Access to Medical Imaging Act (H.R. 5704) was introduced in the House of Representatives in June. The bill calls for a two-year “budget neutral” moratorium (delay) on the drastic DRA cuts in payments for Medicare medical imaging services. The bill also 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 132 co-sponsors 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 co-sponsors to see the alphabetical list of the current House of Representative co-sponsors.

A companion bill (S. 3795) was introduced in the Senate in August. Currently there are 21 co-sponsors 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 co-sponsors to see the alphabetical list of the current Senate cosponsors.

If you have not yet done so, SVU still needs you to voice your support for these Bills! Please contact the Representative and both Senators from your state immediately by a faxed personal letter, and urge them either to co-sponsor 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 are now in recess to campaign for the November 7 general election, but it is still vital that they understand the importance and urgency of this issue for vascular ultrasound providers and your patients. Following the November elections, Congress is expected to reconvene around Nov. 13th for a “lame duck” session, during which the AMIA legislation may be considered for a vote.

See these sample Support Letters to get an idea of what to write.

At the writing of this article, SVU’s letter writing campaign to Congress has generated more than 300 personal letters to Members of Congress in 20 states, making SVU one of the most active AMIC organizations at the grassroots level. That number is impressive for a society the size of SVU, but with more than 4,000 members we should be able to send many more letters to Congress. We need to do so if we are to be successful in getting the attention of Congress to understand our concerns and pass legislation to delay implementation of these DRA reimbursement cuts before January 1, 2007. If you have not done so, please send a personal letter by fax 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 and patients!
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) at the SVU national office 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 by fax, and also fax to SVU at 301-459-5651 any response letters you receive from your Members of Congress. Thanks!

Other Activities and Forums

As Members of Congress swing into the last days of the election season, some SVU members may have the opportunity to talk with or ask questions of their Members of Congress or Congressional candidates at campaign events or public meetings. We urge you to take the opportunity to encourage the Congressional candidates to help address the cuts in Medicare reimbursements for imaging that resulted from the DRA. The message is the exact same as that expressed in the draft letters on the SVU website, but can be much more powerfully (and respectfully) delivered in person.

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. These regulatory adjustments could take place without congressional intervention and would soften the blow to the medical imaging community and ensure continued patient access to vital diagnostic vascular imaging services. 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 patient.

Thank you for your assistance and support of SVU.

Bill Schroedter
Chair, SVU Government Relations