URGENT REQUEST: Call Your Senators to Support Physician Payment Fix
"Vote YES on S. 1776, Medicare Physician Fairness Act of 2009."

Unless Congress acts, the Medicare payment update for physicians will be cut by 21% on January 1, 2010. The Senate Finance Committee health reform bill includes another one-year postponement of the cut. This is welcome but Congress needs to get rid of the SGR formula causing these huge cuts permanently.

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) has introduced legislation (S. 1776) to directly address the SGR problem. S. 1776 "rebases" the SGR (forgiving the $289 billion "debt" physicians and other health professionals "owe" to Medicare due to the SGR) and then provides a 10-year freeze in lieu of additional payment cuts, allowing for a fair Medicare payment update to be considered as part of health reform.

Because of complicated budget rules, the Senate Leadership will bring S. 1776 to the Senate floor on Monday, October 19, as a stand-alone bill, separate from health reform. By passing a separate bill that repeals the SGR and eliminates the accumulated spending target debt, budget constraints that have stopped permanent Medicare reform in the past would be lifted, allowing a new physician payment update system to be incorporated into a broader health system reform bill.

Because of Senate floor procedures, there may be as many as four separate Senate votes on S. 1776. We urgently need your help, as Senators must hear from their constituent physicians if the bill is to pass.

If you require additional information, please use the following link, which will take you to the AMA's health reform resources page:  http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/health-system-reform/resources.shtml
Once you have access the page, click on the links related to S. 1776 and the SGR (the top links).

ACTION REQUESTED:
Call your Senators NOW to urge them to vote 'Yes' on S. 1776 and all procedural motions needed to get the bill passed.

CALL TOLL FREE:
Call your Senators using APA's toll-free Hotline: 1-866-727-4894. You will be connected to the Capitol Hill Operator. Ask for your Senators by name. Once you are connected to your Member's office, leave your name and address, along with our suggested message.

SUGGESTED MESSAGE:
As a psychiatric physician and your constituent, I'm asking Senator (last name) to vote "Yes" on all votes to pass S. 1776, the Medicare Physician Fairness Act of 2009. Vote to fix the SGR now.