The National Association for the Advancement of Orthotics & Prosthetics (NAAOP) has issued the following update regarding the U.S. deficit reduction plan:
On November 21, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction announced they could not achieve their goal of reaching compromise on a budget package to reduce the nation’s deficit by $1.2 trillion, a task assigned to them in the Budget Control Act passed late this summer. However, the law’s enforcement trigger (i.e., across-the-board cuts or “sequestration”) will not be pulled until 2013, giving Congress more than a year to substitute across-the board cuts with other alternatives.
The sequestration enforcement measure is set to slash both defense and non-defense spending, including discretionary spending on many health programs, unless Congress acts to block or alter the cuts. President Obama has already threatened to veto any such legislative attempt to remove the sequestration provision. Some entitlement programs, such as Medicaid and Social Security, are exempt from the pending sequestration cuts. However, Medicare providers, including O&P practitioners, stand to lose up to two percent in reimbursement fees if sequestration is implemented in its current form in 2013.
In addition, Medicare physicians and therapists still face a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments, scheduled to take effect January 1, 2012, unless Congress intervenes. Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress have publicly stated their commitment to take action before the end of the year to avert the 27 percent cut, but it remains to be seen whether Congress will act before the new year on a proposal to avoid scheduled cuts to reimbursement.
It would cost approximately $300 billion to offset the cost of repealing the current physician fee schedule formula. A one-year fix, which is much more likely at this point, would cost several billion dollars. Congress could implement a number of fee cuts for other types of Medicare providers, including O&P practitioners, to bridge the gap. Therefore, the O&P Alliance is actively monitoring Congressional activity on this front and is advocating to protect the O&P profession.
Conversely, the movement of the physician fee schedule legislation will provide a legislative vehicle on which to potentially attach O&P legislation favored by NAAOP and the O&P Alliance organizations-namely, H.R. 1958, the Medicare Orthotics and Prosthetics Improvement Act of 2011.
NAAOP is making similar efforts to have H.R. 805, the Injured and Amputee Veterans Bill of Rights considered in the closing days of the first session of the 112th Congress, but the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees are not focused on this bill heading into the end of the session. It is more likely that 2012 will offer a meaningful opportunity to press for Congressional passage of this VA legislation.
NAAOP will continue to keep its members and friends informed of developments as they occur. For more information, visit www.naaop.org or e-mail [email protected]
