Federal opioid package receives bipartisan support in the U.S. House On June 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 6, the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act. It includes more than 55 opioid-related bills intended to help combat the nation’s opioid crisis by advancing treatment and recovery initiatives, improving prevention, protecting our communities and bolstering our efforts to fight deadly illicit synthetic drugs. HR 6 also includes several Medicaid, Medicare and public health reforms to help combat the opioid crisis. The California Medical Association (CMA) aggressively advocated for more funding ... July 11, 2018 General Prescription Drugs, Drug Prescribing, Federal Legislative Advocacy 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA physicians travel to D.C. to advocate on critical health care issues A California Medical Association (CMA) contingent of two dozen physician and medical student leaders recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the American Medical Association’s (AMA) National Advocacy Week. They met with 24 members of the California Congressional Delegation and top leadership of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to advocate for many health care issues critically important to California physicians. While in Washington, California physicians focused on promoting the bipartisan Affordable Care Act (ACA) market stabilization bill that would reinstate the cost-sharing reduction payments and ... April 5, 2018 CMA, General AMA, American Medical Association, Federal Legislative Advocacy 0 0 Comment Read More »
$1.3 trillion federal appropriations bill loaded with new health care spending Last Friday, President Trump signed a massive $1.3 trillion federal spending bill—the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. It is loaded with new spending for health care programs that were supported by the California Medical Association (CMA). Unfortunately, it did not include two bills that CMA was strongly promoting – the Affordable Care Act (ACA) market stabilization bill and a permanent solution for the nearly 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipients. A brief summary of the federal spending bill is below. Bipartisan ACA Market Stabilization: CMA, the American Medical ... April 5, 2018 General Affordable Care Act, Drug Abuse, Federal Budget, Federal Legislative Advocacy, Firearms, Graduate Medical Education, Guns, Mental Health, Opioids 0 0 Comment Read More »
Stopgap bill to fund federal government includes 6-year CHIP extension Today, the U.S. Senate voted to end the federal shutdown and keep the government running temporarily for three weeks until February 8. This stopgap bill will give budget negotiators time to develop a final agreement on 2018 fiscal year spending. The House of Representatives is expected to adopt the Senate’s three-week stopgap bill. The bill also includes a six-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – an important program that serves nearly 2 million children and pregnant women in California, and more than 9 million nationwide. The California ... January 30, 2018 General Federal Legislation, Federal Legislative Advocacy, Maternal and Child Health, State Children's Health Insurance Program 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA opposes proposed Medicare physician payment cuts The U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee is working to extend the “rural” work Geographic Practice Cost Index (GPCI) payment adjustment, which is set to expire December 31, 2017. In order to pay for the extension, the committee has proposed an overall cut to Medicare physician payments by identifying and lowering payments for “misvalued” services. In 2014, Congress included a physician-opposed provision in the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA), designed to hold down Medicare spending by requiring the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to identify ... December 28, 2017 Medicare Federal Legislative Advocacy, Geographic Practice Cost Index, GPCI, Medicare 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA, AMA and organized medicine were united in opposing Graham-Cassidy Last week, the latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) collapsed, after three Republican Senators announced their opposition—Susan Collins (R-ME), Rand Paul (R-KY) and John McCain R-AZ). Further action is unlikely this year, as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the Senate would now turn its focus to overhauling the tax code. However, several Republicans vowed to continue to work into next year to repeal the ACA. The California Medical Association (CMA), the American Medical Association (AMA) and all of organized medicine were united in opposing this ... October 13, 2017 CMA, General, Managed Care, Medi-Cal ACA, Affordable Care Act, Affordable Care Act (ACA) Repeal, Covered California, Federal Legislation, Federal Legislative Advocacy, Medicaid, Medi-Cal 0 0 Comment Read More »
California's physicians oppose Graham-Cassidy repeal bill The U.S. Senate is currently considering the Graham-Cassidy block grant bill, which would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance mandate, underfund health insurance subsidies and make drastic cuts to the Medicaid program. Under the bill, traditional Medicaid funding would be capped. Medicaid expansion and ACA subsidies for low- and middle-income families would be subject to an underfunded block grant and phased out in 2027. This bill would be disproportionately harmful to states like California, which embraced Medicaid expansion and increased coverage under the ACA. In response, the California Medical ... September 27, 2017 CMA, Medi-Cal Affordable Care Act, Affordable Care Act (ACA) Repeal, Federal Legislation, Federal Legislative Advocacy, Health Care Reform 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA urges swift action to renew Children's Health Insurance Program The California Medical Association (CMA) is urging Congress to reauthorize the successful Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is set to expire on September 30, 2017. Although the 20-year-old program has historically had bipartisan support, there has been some concern that the CHIP reauthorization could get caught up in the partisan bickering surrounding other priority issues, including attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). CMA has urged Congress to reauthorize the program for at least five years at current funding levels to give states the stability to engage ... September 27, 2017 General Federal Legislation, Federal Legislative Advocacy, Maternal and Child Health, State Children's Health Insurance Program 0 0 Comment Read More »
California congressmen introduce bills to address physician shortage Two important bills have been introduced in Congress to address our state’s serious physician shortage and improve access to care in California. The first bill, the Training the Next Generation of Primary Care Doctors Act of 2017 (HR 3394), would reauthorize for an additional three years the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (GME) program that was established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Teaching Health Center program is a community-based primary care physician training program that has been extremely successful in expanding the physician workforce in underserved areas. ... August 9, 2017 General Federal Legislation, Federal Legislative Advocacy , Graduate Medical Education, Physician Workforce, Primary Care, Rural Health, Underserved Communities 0 0 Comment Read More »
U.S. Senate health reform update While there has been considerable activity in the Senate over the past week, plans for bringing a health system reform bill to the floor for a vote remain very fluid. Under pressure from both President Trump and a long legislative to-do list, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he would attempt to bring repeal legislation to the floor again tomorrow. At this point, it appears that two substitute amendments for the House-passed American Heath Care Act (AHCA) are likely candidates to serve as the basis for Senate debate: ... July 24, 2017 General Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), Federal Legislative Advocacy, Health Care Reform, Obamacare Repeal and Reconciliation Act (ORRA) 0 0 Comment Read More »
