AAPI Hails SGR Proposal and Red Flag Rules Exemption
Dec 09, 2010
Contact: Dino Teppara
Director of Legislative Affairs
legislativeaffairs@aapiusa.org
AAPI Hails SGR Proposal and Red Flag Rules Exemption
Washington, D.C. – Today, the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) commended congressional actions that provide a one-year fix to the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and exempt physicians from the Red Flag Rules.
“We are very pleased to see congressional movement on two very important issues to AAPI members and our nation’s physicians,” said AAPI President Dr. Ajeet R. Singhvi. “We cannot practice medicine effectively with uncertainty in the health care system. We have told our Congressmen and Senators time and time again they must pass legislation to improve access to health care, not decrease it.
“Without these important fixes, many Americans would have experienced increased difficulties seeing their physician on January 1. Because of these actions, we can now plan accordingly and continue to do what we do best, which is provide the best health care in the world to our patients.”
Without congressional action, Medicare reimbursements would have been cut 25% on January 1. Congressional negotiators plan to use funding from the health care reform act to pay for the one-year Medicare fix, which will cost nearly $20 billion. This gives Congress time to pass a permanent fix to the formula, which has repeatedly required cuts to physician reimbursements and congressional action to prevent those cuts from occurring.
The Red Flag Rules derive from a 2003 law stating that creditors must use identity theft protection programs to protect consumers and a later Federal Trade Commission ruling that physicians fall under the law as creditors since they bill patients. As the original legislation was aimed toward those primarily in the business of extending credit, the current congressional action exempts physicians from the rules, since any such credit system in place is incidental to the actual business, which is the practice of medicine.
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