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PPSV's Healthcare Reform Resource Center Please visit and bookmark this page for daily updates on the healthcare reform debate. Mar 1, 2010 Issue 230 In this issue, you'll find: White House Holds Healthcare Summit and Releases Outline of Legislative Proposal Physician Payment Cut To Go Into Effect; Lawmakers Talk of Delaying Cut After Deadline Passes House Panel Finds Rangel Violated Ethics Rules Senate Passes First of Series of Jobs Bills House Committee Holds Hearing on Medical Radiation Overexposure PPSV Principal Gives Healthcare Presentations in February and March Hearings Top Story White House Holds Healthcare Summit and Releases Outline of Legislative Proposal This past week, the White House hosted a bipartisan healthcare reform summit and released an overview of a legislative proposal that mainly follows the already passed Senate legislation but offers some compromises between the House and Senate bills. Lawmakers from each party joined President Obama for a day long discussion on healthcare reform, where the President pushed Republicans to make suggested changes for the current bills so that they could support reform, and Republicans pushed back asking the White House to scrap the legislation and begin again with a less costly and controversial bill. But neither the White House nor Congressional Democratic Leaders have signaled that they will start over. To the contrary, parts of Obama's recent proposal could be used as an outline for an amendments package to pass through reconciliation in the Senate. This simple majority procedure has been a lightening rod for controversy, with Republicans arguing that it is a way to block them out of the debate. If the Senate were to pass the amendments package, the House could take up the amendments package with the Senate bill and pass both simultaneously. However, it is unclear how much support Obama's proposed compromises have in the House, and Democratic Representatives could fight for further changes before agreeing to pass the Senate bill. Whether or not Democratic lawmakers adopt the President's proposal as legislation still remains to be seen, and with each passing day pro-reform advocates worry that reform efforts would collapse. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has set a new completion deadline for Easter recess; Obama had hoped to sign healthcare reform legislation by the end of last year. Health Care News Physician Payment Cut To Go Into Effect; Lawmakers Talk of Delaying Cut After Deadline Passes On Monday, March 1, a 21 percent cut to Medicare physician payments is scheduled to go into effect. The cut was initially scheduled for implementation at the beginning of the year, but was temporarily delayed through legislation. Now Democratic leaders are talking about extending that delay later this month, despite having passed the deadline for implementation. Toward the end of February, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) tried to gather support for unanimous consent to pass an "extenders" package through the Senate, but Republicans objected to the bill because it does not include pay fors. Despite the Senate's pay-as-you-go rules, the bill has been given emergency status so that it's provisions are not coupled with offsets. The legislation would have delayed the physicians payment cut for another month, and also included an extension for unemployment benefits and an extension for the Medicare caps exceptions process. House Panel Finds Rangel Violated Ethics Rules Although the House Ethics Panel found that Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) violated gift rules, the press is reporting that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is not yet calling from him to step down as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicare and Social Security, among other programs. The panel's findings are part of an ongoing investigation into Rangel's financial dealings. On Thursday, the panel released a report admonishing Rangel for trips he took to the Caribbean that were organized by the Carib News Foundation, which collected money from corporations to help pay for the trips. The report also stated that there was no evidence that Rangel knew that corporations financed the trips, although the information was known to some of his staff. The panel exonerated five other Congressional members in the investigation of the trips. Senate Passes First of Series of Jobs Bills Last week, the Senate easily passed a $15 billion Democratic jobs bill, which was significantly pared down in anticipation of further job creation bills to come, by a vote of 70 to 28. Thirteen Republicans joined 55 Democrats and two independents in passing the legislation. The bill's most significant provision, would give employers a payroll tax "holiday" for hiring workers who had been unemployed for 60 days or more. The House is expected to pass the bill quickly and send it to the President's desk. House Committee Holds Hearing on Medical Radiation Overexposure House Energy and Commerce Committee members are considering possible legislation on medical radiation exposure after investigating cases of patients being overexposed to radiation while undergoing treatments. The Committee looked into reported cases involving overexposure to radiation during brain scans and with the use of radioactive seeds. Lawmakers during the hearing discussed potential certification requirements for operators of the machinery, reporting regulations for when a mistake is made and for fail safes to be installed in the machines. In related news, the Food and Drug Administration recently released interim recommendations to imaging facilities, radiologists and radiologic technologists regarding exposure to radiation during CT perfusion imaging of the brain. The recommendations are part of an ongoing investigation into cases of excess radiation during the imaging procedure.The interim recommendations apply to all CT perfusion images, including brain and heart. PPSV in the News PPSV Principal Gives Healthcare Presentations in February and March PPSV principal Jim Pyles made a presentation to the Maryland-National Capital Home Care Association on February 2 on health care reform bills pending in Congress. On February 18, Mr. Pyles gave a presentation on New Opportunities in Chronic Care Coordination in Health Care Reform at the Long-term Care Conference sponsored by the American Health Lawyers Association. On February 11, Mr. Pyles gave a webinar presentation to the Iowa Medical Society entitled "Health Information Technology-Unknown Potential, Unlimited Liability" that addressed the emerging liability risks of electronic health information systems and how to minimize those risks. Mr. Pyles will be making a similar presentation on March 25 at the World Congress Conference on HIPAA and HITECH. Upcoming Events Hearings Wednesday, March 3 Payments for State Veterans Homes House Veterans' Affairs - Subcommittee on Health 2 p.m., 340 Cannon Bldg. Thursday, March 4 Medicare and Medicaid Fraud House Judiciary - Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security 10 a.m., 2141 Rayburn Bldg. Fiscal 2011 Budget Senate Budget Committee 2 p.m., 608 Dirksen Bldg. Combating Health Care Fraud House Appropriations - Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies 2 p.m., 2358-C Rayburn Bldg. For More Information For further information on any topics discussed or publications listed, or to get copies of anything mentioned in this alert, please call (202) 466-6550 and ask for the Legislative Practice Group. Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville P.C. is a full service law firm specializing in health care and education law and located at 1501 M St., NW 7th Floor, Washington DC 20005 © Copyright 2010, Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville P.C. All rights reserved. Terms & Conditions