No Deal, but Risks and Opportunities Still Exist for O&P Profession
On November 21, 2011, 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.
To fully offset the cost of repealing the current physician fee schedule
formula would cost approximately $300 billion. 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, the Medicare
Orthotics and Prosthetics Improvement Act of 2011, H.R. 1958.
NAAOP is making similar efforts to have the Injured and Amputee Veterans
Bill of Rights (H.R. 805) 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 important VA legislation.
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