November 19, 2010

Senate Passes 31 Day SGR Patch

Last night, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to provide a 31-day reprieve in Medicare cuts in physician reimbursement caused by the Sustainable Growth Rate factor (SGR). The legislation will continue the current rate of Medicare reimbursement through December 31, 2010.

The House has yet to take up similar legislation, but is expected to consider the bill upon return from the Thanksgiving recess. If Congress fails to act to prevent the cuts, physicians will see a 24.9% cut in Medicare payments between now and January 1, 2011.

The Senate action is a welcomed first step in getting Congress to avert the SGR cuts, but it is only a step. If the 31-day patch passes in the House, the physician community must keep the pressure on Congress to pass legislation that provides a one-year solution at minimum. Assuming Congress will eventually pass that one-year fix, physicians will still need to pressure Congress to devise and pass a permanent fix to the SGR problem.

ATS members are encouraged to keep up the pressure on Congress.

CLEAN AIR

ATS Calls for Stricter Ozone Standard

This week, the ATS held a conference call with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to urge EPA to issue a revised National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 65 ppb 8-hour, down from the current standard of 75 ppb. ATS Immediate Past-President J. Randall Curtis MD MPH joined the call to outline the ATS expertise and long-term involvement in the EPA standard setting process; ATS member Laura Van Winkle PhD noted three recent studies that demonstrate the need for a stricter standard of 65 ppb; and ATS Secretary-Treasurer Patricia Finn MD encouraged EPA Administrator to demonstrate the political will needed to set a strict standard of 65 ppb, noting that the lives and health of many respiratory patients - especially children with asthma - are at stake.

The current standard was set under the Bush Administration, but the EPA entered a court agreement to revisit it, as the Bush Administration had failed to to provide scientific justification for the standard required by Clean Air Act.

A final decision on the ozone standard is expected in December 2010.

RESEARCH

Congress Moves Toward Passing Temporary Funding Measure

The Senate Appropriations Committee has been preparing , comprising spending bills for all federal agencies, including the Labor-Health and Human Services bill, which covers NIH and CDC funding. However, Senate Republicans have signaled that they will not support such a package and instead aim to pass a temporary continuing resolution (CR) funding government programs through February. This would enable the new 112th Congress, with a Republican-led House, to determine spending levels for the remainder of FY2011. The current continuing resolution that funds government programs expires December 3, so either a new continuing resolution or the omnibus appropriations package will have to be passed by that date.

TUBERCULOSIS

ATS Leads White House Meeting on Tuberculosis

Today, ATS the Washington office staff chaired a meeting with coalition partners and White House global and domestic health advisor Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, to advocate for increased prioritization of tuberculosis in the President's Global Health Initiative and more funding for global and domestic tuberculosis control through U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the meeting, coalition partners discussed the pipeline for new TB drugs, including shorter treatment regimens, as well as the potential for dramatically scaling up TB case detection through newly available rapid molecular diagnostics tests, which can diagnose drug resistant TB and TB in people with HIV within hours.. ATS staff discussed in-country program successes through the ATS's Tuberculosis Coalition for Technical Assistance collaborative with the Dutch Tuberculosis Foundation, CDC, World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) in Afghanistan, Southern Sudan and Uganda. ATS staff also emphasized the danger that drug resistant TB poses to the U.S., not only in terms of public health, but in terms of the high healthcare costs for effective treatment.

The ATS and coalition partners requested assistance from the Administration in the following areas: U.S. government engagement with private pharmaceutical companies for increased investment into new TB drugs; a U.S. government commitment to include universal access to TB treatment in high-level discussions with highly-burdened countries; and a call for the administration to work with the FDA and drug manufacturers to ensure availability of second-line drugs for MDR-TB in the U.S.

The Washington Letter is written by the American Thoracic Society government relations office and emailed to all ATS members living in the United States. The letter keeps clinicians, scientists, and patients abreast of legislative, judicial, and regulatory issues in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. Each week's edition is archived on the ATS Web site, www.thoracic.org. If you have any questions or one more information about becoming involved in advocacy, please contact the ATS Washington office at 202-296-9770.